Nottingham’s famous peregrine nest offers gold standard window on wildlife ­— Erin McDaid, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

As much of the country was gearing up for the London Olympics back in 2012, teams at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Nottingham Trent University were limbering up for a challenge of a different kind.

We were embarking on an exciting project to launch a live internet feed using high definition cameras focused on a peregrine falcon nest that had been safely perched high on the university’s Newton Building for the past decade.

In the years leading up to the installation of the cameras we had been worked in partnership with the university to ensure that the nest was protected.

Peregrines are what is known as a Schedule 1 protected species, meaning they a high level of protection under wildlife law.

Security cameras had been installed to add an extra level of protection to an already quite secure nest site but the grainy feed, while good enough for monitoring any potential threats, was far from good enough to launch as an education resource for public viewing.

Thanks to significant investment by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) a suite of new cameras opened up world of new wildlife watching opportunities for audiences in Nottingham and beyond.

Following the popularity of shows such as Springwatch and hobbies such as birdwatching we thought it likely that there would be a good level of interest in the live stream but I think its fair to say that both ourselves and the university were totally unprepared for just how popular the nestcam would become pretty much overnight.

At the end of the nesting season, the nest had received over half a million views from more than 100 countries. The wildlife trust and NTU teams had given countless media interviews and expended huge amounts of energy dealing with the highs and lows on camera and dealing questions and queries from the public.

In the years that followed the nestcam remained popular and became something of a staple in the local media with regular updates on how the family was fairing each season.

A friendly rivalry even developed with a peregrine nest on Derby Cathedral to see which nest would make it on the to the local television news first each year.

Despite the continued interest we could not have anticipated the reaction to the peregrine nest that we witnessed in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns.

As everyone took heed of the instruction to ‘stay at home’ we started to track a staggering level of interest and web traffic soared as people took solace from being able to connect with nature from the safety of their own homes.

Fast forward to 2021 and we had seen a surge in interest, even beyond of our early webcam years or last year. Before an egg had been laid, interest in the nest reached new heights with 32,000 views on just one day in early March.

Interest was enhanced by investment in new cameras by our partners at Nottingham Trent University and after a tricky couple of years with egg failures, everyone connected with the project was keeping everything crossed that our peregrine pair could achieve gold this year ­— with the fledging of our 40th chick from the much-loved and observed nest.

As we optimistically anticipated the arrival of a third and possibly fourth egg, we were somewhat cruelly reminded of the unpredictability of nature.

Over the weekend I received a report of a dead peregrine discovered in Nottingham city centre. As we investigated we feared the worst while hoping for the best. On Monday, as we collected the dead bird to arrange a postmortem examination to establish the cause of death and rule out foul play, it became clear that our much-celebrated female falcon had not been seen since the dead bird was reported.

As we got used to the fact that the nesting season may be at risk we kept our fingers crossed that a new female would arrive in time to take advantage of a hugely advantageous nesting site while there was time left this year to breed.

Before the day was out we had witnessed the resident male, known as Archie, being dive-bombed as he sought to protect his eggs and shortly after we witnessed the first foray on to the nest ledge by what we are confident is a new female falcon.

In all likelihood the arrival of the new female precipitated the demise of our hugely successful resident female and we must now hope that there is still time for a new pair to establish and breed this season.

As we lament the passing of a bird that had a huge following and brought pleasure to countless folk we can take heart from the knowledge that there are peregrines across the UK that carry her DNA.

To view the webcam visit nottinghamshirewildlife.org/peregrines-cam