Snow and who's eating what.....

The snow yesterday (4th) certainly filled up the nest platform though it has mostly thawed today. In the surrounding countryside, there was a good five inches of snow and if you were feeding the birds in your garden and cleared some patches so the birds could get to whatever you put out, you'd have had plenty of visitors.

In my garden, blackbirds and fieldfares came for the apples I threw out, tits, sparrows and finches for the seed, a woodpecker, a nuthatch and some starlings to the fat blocks and collared doves, dunnocks and robins on the bird table and pecking about underneath the feeders.
Fieldfares certainly love apples and will come into gardens in cold weather if you put some out. I had 41 of them on Saturday, though they didn't stay very long, there being more birds than fruit! BTW, the fieldfare artist is Mike Warren, who lives in Nottinghamshire just to the east of us.

Fieldfares are taken by the peregrines but since they come to the UK in their thousands each winter to escape the cold of Scandinavia, their numbers are hardly dented by this minor mortality. Redwings, their Viking cousins, are also taken by our birds. They too winter in the UK in many thousands though they don't eat apples. They prefer berries if there are any left.
Joyce S, one of our watch point volunteers, tells me she had redwings in her Derby garden

feeding on holly berries last week. All the holly berries round me have long been eaten so redwings here have been turning to those of ivy, a nutritious source of food.
Feeding birds directly by putting food out and indirectly (by making your garden wildlife friendly) sustains birds and other willdife and gives lots of pleasure too. Well worth considering if you've never done it before!

Nick B (DWT)

Ps. Robert Gillmor is the redwing artist.

Pps. I confess the snowy cathedral photo was taken last year...I didn't get down today.

Good turn out for Tony

Last night's service and presentations to Tony as he left the Head Verger's post went very well.

There were well over 200 people present, a much bigger congregation than is usual, made up mostly of people who had come especially to thank Tony for his hard work, help and unfailing good humour over the eleven years he's been at the cathedral.
A small band of 'peregrine people' attended (including one staunch supporter coming over from the West Midlands!). Nick's M and B presented Tony with a framed photo of the male standing on the platform edge waving at the assembled crowd below. This shot was taken by Graham Whitmore in 2007 and he has kindly allowed us to use this and other photos over the intervening years.

In addition, Tony was given some wine and a copy of J A Baker's beautifully written book, The Peregrine.
The lengthy introduction, by Mark Cocker, even mentions our Derby Cathedral birds!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to these gifts. photo copyright Graham Whitmore
Nicks B and M

By heck, its a long way down.....

We were fortunate to have the free services of two very experienced abseilers, Sam and Daz from 'Acclimbatize', an outdoor training company based near Matlock, Derbyshire, to help with the abseil and nest clean today.

Accompanied by Nick M, they went down and re-positioned the camera that has been hanging precariously by a thin wire for the last few weeks, cleaned both cameras, checked the nest platform and cleaned it up.
The cameras were left on so that everyone

could see what was going on, sometimes perhaps a little bit too close for comfort! Apologies if so.
Anyway, despite a cold east wind, the tasks were all successfully completed.

In the morning, we held the annual meeting with the project partners - The Cathedral, Derby Museums, Cathedral Quarter and the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. The bid to the lottery was explained and discussed and partners were brought up to speed both with what had happened last year and how we would hope to proceed this coming year if lottery money come through and and also if it doesn't.

Last week we were contacted by the lottery and advised that we would stand a far better chance of success if we would agree to having the bid discussed in April, ie in the new financial year when more money will be being distributed, rather than in March as originally promised. This was agreed to though it will make it more difficult for us to do much new work in this coming season, which will (we hope) be well underway by April.

The photos shows the three abseilers preparing their ropes and looking over the edge prior to descending. The falcon was on Jury's Inn with the tiercel when we arrived on the tower top but she did make a single circuit of the tower (loudly shouting her displeasure) before flying back to the JI sign. The tiercel, true to form, stayed put!

Tony Grantham was on hand most of the day both to attend the meeting and to introduce us to the new Head Verger. It was Tony's very last day at work!
Details of the service and farewell 'do' at the cathedral were posted a few days ago - so do scroll back if you missed them. Everyone is welcome.

Nick B/Nick M

Could it be one of ours?

Notice  Monday 30th Jan: Weather permitting, the nest platform and cameras are due for a maintenance inspection and adjustment on Tuesday afternoon (1-2pm onwards). We are grateful to Sam and Daryl from Acclimbatize who have kindly offered to do this maintenance work on our behalf, and whose feet you may occasionally see in our webcams. We're looking forward to meeting them tomorrow (all of them, not just the feet). Derbyshire Police have been given advance notice of our planned maintenance, lest anyone mistakenly rings them to report suspicious activity in the vicinity of a peregrine's nest! Please be aware we have switched cameras on our webpages. One now shows the view from the faulty camera which fell from its mount during the winter. We need to be able to see the image over our smartphone in order to adjust it and ensure the new camera position is suitable.



Recently we received photos of a peregrine taken by Roger Browne in Croydon, Surrey, UK.
It has a reddish ring on its left leg - the same colour (and leg) that we ring our Derby juveniles with. Roger asked: 'Could it be one of your Derby birds?'

Unfortunately, the photos were taken at a distance and it is not possible to read a number on the ring. Indeed, the ring is a bit

distorted and may be different in form from the ones we use.

 Derby colour ring - the first one ever put on (in 2007) Photo NB(DWT)

So probably, we'll never know if this was one of our youngsters now grown into an adult and living elsewhere.
To our dismay, we have also learnt recently that orange-coloured rings have been used on peregrines in other counties, albeit with a different lettering system. This is quite disappointing as until now we had thought our colour rings were distinctive. It seems that ringers in London and Lincolnshire might have thought the same as us, too. 

It would be great to know that this was indeed one of our birds. Let's hope it is seen and photographed again.....

For details of Tony Grantham's leaving service and presentations, please see the previous post.

Tony's Leaving Service and 'do' (and nest clean up)

On Thursday 2nd February, there will be a service in the cathedral to celebrate both Candlemas and Tony Grantham's departure from the post of Head Verger.

The service starts at 7.00pm and will be a Communion Service with the choir singing a setting

by Widor. There will be 'incense and much pomp & ceremony' apparently!

The service should end about 8.15 and it will be followed (after a short pause while the choir and clergy change out of their cassocks etc) with presentations and some sort of a 'party', the details of which have not yet been announced.

Everyone is welcome either for the service or the presentations and 'party' or both.

We hope to see some of you there......

Nick B and Nick M

Ps. An abseil to clean up the nest and sort out the fallen camera is planned within the next week or two, depending on the weather (it needs to be calm and dry preferably). More on this nearer the time....

Another 'peregrine' trapped....or was it?

This afternoon (9th January) I received a phone call from Tony Grantham. The owner of a florist shop just down the road from the cathedral reported finding a 'peregrine' trapped behind anti-pigeon netting, tucking into a dead pigeon.

Following my pre-Christmas rescue of a male sparrowhawk at the massive Westfield Shopping Centre, I had my suspicions that this bird might also prove to be the same and not a peregrine.

I set off for town with gloves and a capture box not knowing what I would find. It was getting dark so I took a powerful torch which, as it happened, proved very useful.

The shop owner, Shirley, took me to the back of the premises where a large cage of loose netting had been set up to stop the local pigeons from fouling everywhere.

A guy from another shop which also backs onto this netted area was already trying to coax the bird down and out through an unzipped 'door' in the netting, but to little avail.

I immediately realised that the bird was indeed a sparrowhawk, its bright yellow eye shining out at me when I shone the torch on the bird

Now with two of us working together we could keep it moving about until it landed lower on the netting and within reach. After a few false attempts, the bird was easy to catch and then release through the gap in the netting.

It flew off strongly into the sunset, none the worse for its ordeal but perhaps somewhat chastened!

Sparrowhawks are occasionally seen from the watch points in the summer and I've once seen one perch momentarily on the cathedral tower. This rescue and the one at Westfield made it clear to me that these little predators are frequent visitors to the centre of the city, with feral pigeons probably their main prey target.

Afterwards I headed over to the cathedral to find both adult peregrines warming their feet on the Jurys Inn signs....it was good to confirm that they were both OK.

Nick B (Wildlife Trust)

The top photo shows an adult male sparrowhawk. Note the yellow eye and lack of black moustache.

The lower photo shows a female sparrowhawk (photo courtesy and copyright of Pauline Greenhalgh). Females are bigger than males but lack the red colouration below and the blue above.

Sparrowhawks (and goshawks) belong to the group of round-winged 'hawks'.

By contrast, peregrines, along with the kestrel, hobby and merlin, are pointed winged 'falcons'. More on this in a later blog post.

Solstice beckons

As the days grow ever shorter we huddle round our fires and wildlife tends to be furthest from our thoughts. However, here are some reminders about what is going on out there - and some suggestions about how you might help.

First, there's a petition to be signed...especially as Derbyshire has a particularly dismal record when it comes to raptor persecution. An e-petition submitted to the department of the environment has recently been accepted by the government and added to the official list of e-Petitions website. If 100,000 people sign the petition, the issue of 'Vicarious Liability' will be debated in the House of Commons.

The petition, as you will see, requires the owners of land, not just their employees (such as gamekeepers) to be liable to prosecution if birds of prey are illegally killed on their property or if employees are found in possession of the illegal chemicals that are used to poison them.

Please visit http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/23089 to sign up. It only takes a few seconds.

Many thanks.

Second, December is a good month to join your local wildlife trust or give membership as a gift. You can do this through the national website www.wildlifetrusts.org/ or, in the case of Derbyshire, via their recently re-vamped website at www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org. Incidentally, the website does have links to this project (under 'projects' and also to the

'wildlife diary' that a certain someone writes for the Trust each week and which mentions the peregrines at regular intervals.....)
Thirdly, you could make a donation to a wildlife charity of your choice perhaps, instead of asking for a present you don't really need. The peregrine project or a wildlife trust are obvious candidates....as is (for me) Birdlife Malta (www.birdlifemalta.org), a dedicated group trying to counter the appalling shooting of migrant birds (from swallows to eagles) passing over that island. There are many more very worthwhile wildlife charities out there of course so do plump for your favourite ones.
The bid for a grant to sustain this project is nearing completion and should be handed in to the Heritage Lottery Fund before the end of the month.
A big thank you to everyone who took the trouble to send in their comments and tributes to the project. These have helped us enormously to show the level of support for our work and to indicate just what an effect the birds have had on so many of you.

The artwork accompanying this post is by Noel Cusa (top) and Mike Warren. Noel worked in industry all his life with painting as an occasional hobby. When he retired he started to paint in earnest and you can see the level of his achievement. His mentor was the great Charles Tunnicliffe. Charles' book The Peregrine Sketchbook, contains many wonderful paintings of peregrines on the cliffs of Anglesey where he lived (available on Amazon for £9).

Mike Warren lives in Nottinghamshire and has been a wildlife artist for many years, starting out in graphic design. These field sketches are from a calendar he produced many years ago.

I think you'll agree that both artists in their different styles capture the character of the bird to perfection.

Finally, the peregrine 'bible', written by the late Derek Ratcliffe (The Peregrine, Poyser Books) is also available online, though for rather more money unless you can pick one up second hand.....

Nick B (DWT)

Ps, Finally finally, The DVD on The Peregrines of Derby is also still available via the DWT website...I almost forgot to mention that!