Peregrine falcon chicks poisoned, cathedral says

Post-mortems on two of three peregrine chicks born in a nest on top of Worcester Cathedral earlier this year show they were poisoned.

Adult birds Peter and Peggy produced four eggs at the cathedral this spring, one failed to hatch, but all three of the successfully hatched chicks died between 6 and 15 May.

A 24-hour livestream of the nest, which had been watched by thousands of people, was shut down as a result.

The cathedral said it did not know how the chicks came to ingest poison, and that it was terribly sad after three years in which four chicks had hatched each time and fledged successfully.

Two of the dead chicks were recovered by the Peregrine Falcons in Worcester team and sent to a laboratory for analysis.

The post-mortems showed the birds' cause of death was down to ingesting poison.

Chris Dobbs, the cathedral's biodiversity adviser said the results would be shared with the wildlife unit at West Mercia Police as well as the British Trust for Ornithology.

Because the nest had been under the microscope, "you see the good and the bad," said Mr Dobbs, reflecting on the deaths of the chicks.

"It's not a good thing to happen, but it does happen, so hopefully it won't again, and we'll have a nice normal year next time."

West Mercia Police confirmed they had received a report about the suspected poisonings on 20 October and spoken to the RSPB as part of their investigation.

The investigation had since been closed because of "evidential difficulties", a spokesperson said.

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