When Rev Emily Kolltveit took over as vicar of St Jude’s in 2024, she wanted to throw open the doors of the Grade I listed church for everyone to enjoy.
But the move lead to a problem with pigeons flying into the church.
So a parishioner suggested installing a nesting box on the roof to attract birds of prey.
Before the box was installed the peregrines arrived of their own accord last spring.
“It’s one of those really fun stories that’s an amazing example of the power and movement of the Holy Spirit,” said Rev Kolltveit.
“When I first came here, the church was closed all the time and I wanted to open the doors so people could come and look at it.
“But one of the problems we had was pigeons getting into the building and causing havoc.
“We tried scaring them off with plastic birds of prey, but when one parishioner said we needed to attract peregrine falcons, I thought the idea was pretty crazy.
“Nobody had ever heard of peregrines being this side of Hampstead Heath, but I was fairly new to the church and went along with the idea.”
The large nesting box stayed in her vicarage all year, and when the breeding season was over they managed to climb the church tower and install it over the winter – along with a camera.
Now, the peregrines are back – one of an estimated 800 breeding pairs in England.
And there’s a live stream recording footage on YouTube of them flying in and out of their north London eyrie.
“It wasn’t easy getting it into the tower nearly 100 feet up,” added Rev Kolltveit.
“We had to wait for the weather to improve and installed this massive box. Now you can see them every day going in and out of the box on the web cam.
“It’s so funny – I was praying for them and they arrived. And they have made swift work of the pigeon problem.”
