The peregrine falcon has laid four eggs this year in the nesting box on a high, north-facing ledge on Charing Cross Hospital.
They take around thirty days to hatch, so they are due at Easter. The female has been doing most of the sitting, or incubating. Tom, the tiercel, takes a turn when she is absent and usually sits for about two hours a day. Here he is seeing if he can get her to budge over.
Here are the nesting boxes being built at 181 Talgarth Road. Their incubation period is longer than the falcons’.
Here is an update on progress from Dominus’s relentlessly chirpy (“have a great weekend”) Sam.
“We are 74 weeks into the 110 week build programme. All Eurobond cladding panels have now been installed. Glazing has been installed to all bedrooms in Zone A and will commence imminently on Zone B. The terracotta cladding tiles, perforated metal mesh and brise soleil baguettes are now being installed. Lift installation is ongoing to the main lift core and the curtain walling is almost complete to the lift core. Sample bedrooms are currently being finished ready for inspection on 29th March with Whitbread.”
Ooh La La, terracotta tiles and brise soleil baguettes*. On a wet, grey, Sunday morning in March I am transported to a sunlit, hilltop village in the south of France but it’s only make believe. The Novotel is envious of its neighbour.
* “Brise Soleil is a French term that directly translates as “sun breaker”. It is a solar shading system with a series of horizontal or vertical aluminium blades that help to control the amount of sunlight and solar heat gain in a building.
It was first developed in the 1930s by Swiss-French Architect Charles Edouard Jeanneret (also known as Le Corbusier). He was working as a consultant architect on the Brazilian Ministry of Education & Health building, a 15-storey tower designed with huge walls of glass. Horizontal gear-operated, adjustable solar-shading was installed to control the heat within the building and the glare from the sun.” (APA Facade Systems)