More, hen?

Judging by comments left, there have been some great feeds witnessed over the weekend. A couple of these on Monday have featured a rather large waterbird - a moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), probably taken from the River Derwent corridor which runs just past Cathedral Green. The picture below was captured at 10:00BST (local UK time)

A phone call this-morning to the construction company working on Cathedral Green confirmed that watchers in Derby are now able to access a small part of the "hard-standing" to use telescopes and so forth without blocking the pedestrian walkway along Full Street. The recent warm weather in the UK (up to 30C yesterday) had prevented part of the new surface from hardening properly. We're sorry we misled people who expected more space late last week.

The heat has also posed a challenge for our peregrine parents. Preventing the chicks from overheating in direct sunlight is an absolute priority, as they can easily die if left unprotected for any length of time. We see Mum adopting a strange pose slightly away from the chicks so they are both sheltered from the sun but still with a ventilation gap so that she herself doesn't overheat them. By mid-day the problem has disappeared as the sun will have moved round the tower, creating sufficient shade.


One of our chicks started moving around the platform today - perhaps others have witness this already, but it was a new event to me. Once we get lots of movement we may switch over the camera feeds.

Just a reminder that, whilst you can hear sound on our video clips, there is no audio on the Streamdays webcam feed itself as these are static images. I'm afraid this is something that would only be available with live video-streaming.

(Finally, in case some readers may have pondered the significance of the title of this blog entry, I should explain that "hen" is used in some parts of Britain as a term of endearment, often by an older person to a younger woman. I apologise for my awful sense of humour!)

Follow these links to:

• read an overview of the peregrine project,
• add your name to our mailing list
• find out about buying the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")
• see many more pictures on Froona's very detailed blog over in Holland (both from our webcams and from many others around the world)

Video Clips from 2008

Derby on Saturday - so many great pictures from our webcams have been posted on Froona's blog over in Holland, that we need do no more than refer you to the latest entry by this peregrine expert, entitled "Derby on Saturday" The pictures below are from a great feed on Friday, watched by many people at 15:45 local time (BST).





Because our 24hr recording equipment is inside the Cathedral Tower, we can't bring you full video clips until sometime next week.

Here is a compilation of all the 2008 videos shown here so far. We'll add to this page during the season.


Video Mating 1 March 12 2008
Video Mating 2 March 12 2008
Video Courtship & Nest Scraping circa March 22
Video Courtship & Ee-chupping circa March 26
Video Is egg-laying near? circa March 26
Video First egg laid circa March 26
Video Mating Yet Again March 29 2008
Video Egg-laying moment April 04 2008

Video Two chicks revealed May 04 2008

Video Three chicks revealed May 05 2008

Video Feeding three chicks May 05 2008
Video The Moment of Hatching May 07 2008
Video Four chicks feeding May 08 2008

Follow these links to:

• read an overview of the peregrine project,
• add your name to our mailing list
• find out about the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")
• see many more pictures on Froona's very detailed blog over in Holland (both from our webcams and from many others around the world)

Fourth Chick -flicks

Here are two video clips captured on DVD. Click each image to play from YouTube.

The first shows the moment of hatching at 20:00 local time yesterday evening, accompanied by the 8pm bells of Derby Cathedral.



The second clip shows their second feed, filmed at 10:44 local time this morning. They did also have an earlier fed in darkness at 03:55am.



We are all clearly delighted by the news that all four eggs have now hatched. It may seem that our small, new arrival loses out in the feeding process, but generally once the larger chicks are fed they fall asleep, so letting the smaller one have a chance.

We're pleased to be able to report that the City Council and the contractors on Cathedral Green are on schedule for giving visitors to Derby an area of safe space for viewing the peregrines. This is being done today, and we should have some space available on Friday, although please be prepared for this area to move around over the next few days, but they are trying to accommodate us all as best as they can. As always, please be alert for traffic whilst crossing Full Street.

Scheduled Down-time (and a fourth chick!)

STOP-PRESS We now have four chicks - news broke last night, and we've been chasing that elusive photo ever since. The left-hand picture was taken around 20:30 on Wednesday evening, showing a freshly opened shell. The right hand picture was sent in by a viewer at 08:30 on Thursday morning. The night-time picture was taken around midnight when Mum left suddenly.

Froona's blog over in Holland has a slide show of the fourth egg pipping and cracking on Wednesday evening. This is amazing news as I think most of us had assumed this last egg was not going to prove to be viable, just as two eggs last year failed to hatch.


There will be a break of approximately two hours in both webcam feeds on Thursday 8th May because Capita need to make certain changes to the configuration of our equipment inside the Cathedral Tower. The break will occur sometime between 10.30 - 14.30 local time tomorrow, and will involve the removal of a computer and the re-configuration of our wireless bridge which connects us to the internet by radio. This will make our set-up more sturdy, capable of automatically restarting after a power failure. A lightning surge protector will also be fitted at the same time, and the system configured in readiness for further webcam developments which we'd like to keep under wraps until everything else is resolved. Capita is the Derby City Council's IT support organisation, and they have generously agreed to sponsor our project by supplying the technical expertise we need to send our webcam pictures out through the Council's networks.








Meanwhile, as you can see, it's still only possible to view the peregrines from outside Derby Cathedral from a narrow strip of pedestrian walkway beside Cathedral Green. Until this safe area is extended (which we hope will happen soon) please ensure you don't block the passage of the small minority of Derby people who don't want to stop and look at our amazing birds!

Now that our three chicks have hatched, the Wildlife Trust will soon be turning their attentions to organising the series of Watchpoints which were so successful last year.

Follow these links to:

• read an overview of the peregrine project,
• add your name to our mailing list
• find out about the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")
• see many more pictures on Froona's very detailed blog over in Holland (both from our webcams and from many others around the world)

Video Highlights

We shall have our work cut-out during our lunchtimes for the next few weeks, going up and down the Cathedral Tower to capture video clips. Thanks you to those who reported the times of key activity moments. This helped a lot.

Here are just three of many sequences captured on our DVD recorder. Click each image to play the embedded YouTube video.

First is a changeover revealing two chicks at 19:40 local time on May 4th.



Below is a clip of Mum leaving the nest platform for a few moments to give our first glimpse of three chicks at midday on 5th May, accompanied by the lunchtime bells of Derby Cathedral.


Finally, here's a tender feeding sequence, filmed at 20:15 on 5th May.



Note: Over the next few weeks if you think what you've witnessed on our webcams is a really extra-special moment that stands out above all the rest, and so worthy of capturing on video, do please tell us. Feel free to leave a comment, telling us what you've witnessed and why it seemed of great interest. If you tell us the UK local time it happened (this is visible on each webcam picture), it helps us find the right moment on our 24hour recording.

Because of the popularity of our webcams (6,500 visits today/25,000 pageloads), could we invite viewers to close their browsers when they've finsished viewing the web camera pages? This reduces the strain on the Streamdays servers - and I'm indebted to the guys there for sending out quick alerts to us whenever our own video server freezes.

And Then There Were Three!

Three chicks have now hatched - just like in 2006, which was the first year our peregrines nested on the side of Derby Cathedral's Tower. The pictures below were taken at noon today, after Mum had sat on the chicks and eggs for so long that I suspect many of us thought we'd never get any work done. But a brief departure by the adult, followed by the male's arrival gave us the evidence we needed.

STOP PRESS: Someone over in Holland is doing an absolutely brilliant job of presenting our pictures in slideshow form! After viewing the pictures below, do please nip over to Froona's blog where she has built a special page containing over 100 pictures of today's feeding highlights from Derby (Are we jealous? Only slightly, but mostly grateful) We'll aim to bring you some video clips of this weekend's special events in the next 24 hours.





















A few minutes later a brief moment of feeding allowed us to capture this lovely close-up of our three new arrivals, before Mum returned to brood them and they were once again hidden from view.

Thanks to Veronica B. in Cornwall, we have a picture of the third chick taken around 09:53 this morning, showing the very wet new arrival. As with all our pictures, click to enlarge.

Webcam pages:
Because little is happening on the far side of the nest platform right now, I've changed our second webcam page to show just the tower camera, where we should be seeing the male on guard and preparing food for the chicks below. I hope this full sized picture meets with most people's approval, but we'll return to the multi-feed view in due course.

Follow these links to:

read an overview of the peregrine project,

add your name to our mailing list

find out about the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")

see many more pictures on Froona's very detailed blog over in Holland (both from our webcams and from many others around the world)

Second Peregrine Chick Hatches

It comes to something when you have to send viewers over to Holland to see pictures of our second chick hatching!!!

But earlier on we could do no better than to refer you to the latest entry of Froona's Blog who, like many thousands of you today, is clearly keeping a close eye on events on the ancient tower of Derby Cathedral. The second chick appeared sometime around 17:30 BST (local UK time) - so we're now doing as well as we were this time last year when we also had two chicks and two eggs that never made it.

Eventually we managed to capture the series of pictures below which were taken at a changeover around 19:30 local time this evening.



Earlier today we were sent a picture of Mum and Dad changing over with junior No 1 surrounded by his/her future brothers or sisters. Sorry I can't credit the person who kindly emailed this in - I'm afraid I had to delete the huge email as it blocked up my Inbox, and then I realised I had no name to thank. Thanks also to Chris and David who also sent shots this evening of the changeover above.

Once again please: NO PICTURES OVER 100Kb! At some point I fear my email system may block up, and I can do nothing until we return to work on Tuesday.

(Follow these links to read an overview of the peregrine project, to add your name to our mailing list, or find out about purchasing the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")

First Hatch - more pictures

The previous two entries brought news of our first hatching today.
Here are some more images and links to pictures
1) Webcam addicts and peregrine fan, Froona, over in Holland has added many pictures to her very detailed blog which compares the activities of peregrine nests around the northern hemisphere. Try this page for some great feeding shots of our birds, captured today.

2) Anonymous posted some other other pictures here

3) Meanwhile, shown below are a few images that our project team captured direct from the video server around noon today. Particularly amusing was the moment when Mum dragged the food over towards her new arrival, only to appear to clonk it one its head with such a huge first meal!


Some of you have seen a second egg whith a small hole (pip) in it, so it's likely that we'll see at least one more new arrival today.

First Hatch!

Whilst our new Peregrine DVD has only just hatched, another hatching has also just happened, too! A number of viewers have commented that Mum had been very unsettled on her eggs for the last 24 hours, and at half past midnight today we got a lucky glimpse when she left the nest for two minutes. There was just enough time to log on to our video server inside the Cathedral and to zoom the camera right in. It's clear that one of our eggs had a small hole (pip) in it. Watching the live video stream at around 3 frames per second, I thought I could make out a very slight movement from within, too. Unfortunately the microphone was not working on the live feed, so I had no sound to listen to, but Mum has undoubtedly been agitated by the calls of the young chicks within for some time. By 05:50am I managed to capture this first picture, clearly showing the back end of a chick. It's too early to say if more than one has hatched, but viewers will undoubtedly tell us more by leaving comments (by clicking the "comments" feature below this entry )


Over in Holland, Froona's blog contains a very detailed account of the hatching process, and she suggests it can take around 12 hours from pipping to hatching.