Hampshire police HQ hosts peregrine falcon hatchlings

The chicks will be checked and ringed in a couple of weeks time

A pair of peregrine falcons nesting at the police headquarters in Hampshire have hatched two chicks.

A box about the size of a small dog kennel was fitted to the top of the building in Winchester by Hampshire Ornithological Society, in January.

Before that, the birds had been trying to nest on the building for about three years.

Peregrine falcons are considered the UK's fastest birds and can reach speeds of up to 200mph (321km/h).

Keith Betton, the county bird recorder for the society, said the chicks would be checked and ringed in a couple of weeks.

He said tall buildings, like the police headquarters, acted as "artificial cliffs" for the birds and the box would shelter them from wet weather and give them a better chance of breeding successfully.

The RSPB and Sussex Ornithological Society installed a similar box for peregrine falcons at Chichester Cathedral, West Sussex in 2001.