FOUR peregrine falcon chicks born on York Minster have been ringed in a daring operation about 150 feet up the side of the cathedral.

Jean Thorpe, of the Ryedale Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, said the tagging of the baby birds’ legs meant it might be possible to trace where they go when they eventually fly the nest and leave York.

She said the bright orange ‘Darvic’ plastic rings were numbered and it would be possible to read the numbers with binoculars if they were spotted somewhere.

The chicks were the second set to be born on the Minster to a pair of peregrines who took up residence some years ago. Two were born last year but these were the first to be tagged in this way, she said.

She said she and four others, Craig Ralston and Lucy Murgatroyd of the Lower Derwent Nature Reserve and Natural England, and Steve Agar and and Paul Green, of the Minster, had to climb about 130 feet up a spiral staircase and then a ladder to get near the nest in a purpose-made nesting platform on the North West tower.

The chicks were then removed one by one by Craig and Steve and tagged before being returned to the nest, while their anxious parents circled, protesting noisily.

Jean said the chicks were set to fledge in the next few weeks, at which point they might initially land in a dangerous location, such as a road or a garden where they could be at risk from predators. If anyone saw one land somewhere at risk, they could ring her on 01653 695124 and she could recover them to safety.

The Press reported last year how one of the two chicks born then had to be rescued after ending up on the ground far below, having tried to fly without being quite strong enough to get back up to the nest.

The RSPB said then that peregrines traditionally nested on cliff ledges in remote areas but were adaptable and were increasingly making cities their home,with cathedrals popular sites as they offered the same jagged outcrops as a cliff-face.