New Menu Item

Another addition was made to our peregrine falcon's prey list today, with the finding of a bar-tailed godwit corpse below Derby Cathedral's tower. This was in addition to the remains of other more frequently taken wild birds. The godwit now takes the Derby menu list to a total of 37 different species. The larger female peregrine takes bigger birds up to the size of ducks, whilst the male takes smaller ones, down to the size of swifts and wagtails. (posted on behalf of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

Tower Visit

A visit with the Built Environment team from Derby City Council proved useful in many ways today. Firstly there was a great view of one of the adut peregrines perched on the nest platform. There were fresh prey remains, including yet another new woodcock corpse as well as a lapwing with its white breast visible in this picture. Can’t these guys feed on something more common? Of course, the answer is that we have no control over what they choose to eat, and must accept these losses to our native wildlife. Then there was helpful feedback on how we could minimise the visual impact of the nest platform cameras, though it looks like a plan to put a free-standing microwave link to BBC Radio Derby is out on both planning and stability grounds. (It gets pretty windy up there). But as long as we can put a DVD recorder inside the tower, it means that TV pictures can still be gathered.

Streaming Video and Web-hits

It looks like streaming video may be out of the question in our first year of webcam operation. A very helpful lady at the University of California in Santa Cruz who runs a peregrine webcam with some great stills and video archives there has suggested that their peak data demands are as high as 90Mbps (megabits of data per second). Wow, that’s a lot. We may be able to get 8Mbps in Derby if we’re lucky, so we’ll probably won’t be able to offer this to everyone quite yet. But, then again, Santa Cruz gets millions web-hits every year for their webcams, whereas we’re estimating around 30,000 per annum. When you can watch live streaming images and take control of a camera at the same time, well, the view is incredible. This camera in a hotel in Rome gives great views, ranging from road traffic in the Basilica Maxentius to zoomed in shots of the Colosseum. Just watching the camera pan and tilt in to each selection gives us some idea of effective live streaming video can be.

Gruesome Remains

Lots more gruesome bird remains are being found below the tower, showing that the peregrines are still here and active. Just three peregrines are now being seen around the Derby Cathedral Tower and Cathedral Green, rather than the two parents and three young from last summer. Pretty soon the last chick will probably move off to seek its fortune elsewhere. All the same, it’s not pleasant to see how many rare birds they do seem to like eating. It’s a shame they can’t stick to the feral pigeons which are still present in Derby in large numbers. Over the last few weeks we’ve found the heads and other remains of knot (shown here), dunlin, snipe, water rail, fieldfare and redwing whilst down south we've just heard that a peregrine has just taken a Leach’s Petrel! We have to remember that peregrines are just returning to somewhere like their old numbers, and that it was man who persecuted them to near extinction in England, or who poisoned their food chain with DDT so that their eggs cracked when incubated. The impact on our wild bird populations is really to be welcomed if we are to take delight in seeing peregrines return to central England once again. (posted on behalf of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

Technical Stuff

Made contact with Capita today to start getting costs sorted out. Can we get a wireless radio link from Derby Cathedral Tower to our own servers? If we can't, then this project could costs us a lot more than we bargained for. Capita do all the technical IT support for Derby City Council, and there was lots of enthusiasm, so we’re hopeful they’ll fully support the project and help our keep costs down to an absolute minimum. Now we need to get on to the camera suppliers and check out their views about mounting the remote focus cameras and how far away they can be whilst still giving us night vision.

Getting Our Skates On

It’s the New Year already, and our plans for three web cameras and live streaming video of Derby's peregrine falcons seems frighteningly close and rather ambitious. OK, we’ve been planning this for a couple of months, and talking to a wide range of people, but now we need to get our skates on. Calls to the Council’s website team seem very positive. Even our first contact with our Health and Safety Unit didn’t seem too negative. Just before Christmas the BBC said they wanted to install a microwave link on Derby Cathedral Tower so that they can capture and show our pictures on the regional TV news, but we can’t give them the go ahead until we get the OK for power cables to be run safely up the spiral stone staircase. It’s a listed building, built in 1530, so we aren’t allowed to drill or damage the stonework in any way. Everything we do has to be removable and leave no marks.

First Post

2007 sees the start of plans to film peregrine falcons that first nested on Derby Cathedral last year.

Here we see three chicks just before they were ringed in June 2006. This year we plan to erect webcameras, and report on our progress via this brand new blog as the scheme develops and as the birds return to nest for their second year.

Click on the image below to view a short film of the nest platform being erected by volunteers in April 2006.

Table test The table below is a temporary test of a data table. Please ignore it. Nick Moyes 2022

EVENT	Blank	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006
Mating Observed	Blank						-	March	Feb-March	22 Feb - 30 March	22 Feb - 30 March	01-Mar	16-24 March	15-Mar	8-16 March	-		-
1st Egg Laid	Blank						05-Apr	28-Mar	29-Mar	29-Mar	04-Apr	29-Mar	02-Apr	24-Mar	23-Mar	28-Mar	03-Apr	no cams
	Blank						06:30am	13:00 pm	14:15pm
2nd Egg Laid	Blank						7 April 13:15pm	30 March 19:00pm	31 March 19:30pm	31-Mar	06-Apr	31-Mar	04-Apr	-	-	31-Mar	-	no cams
3rd Egg Laid	Blank						09-Apr	02-Apr	3 April 04:20am	2 April	09-Apr	02-Apr	06-Apr	-	-	02-Apr	-	no cams
	Blank						22:30pm	08:00am
Last Egg Laid	Blank						11-Apr	04-Apr	05-Apr	05-Apr	11-Apr	05-Apr	09-Apr	31-Mar	31-Mar	04-Apr	09-Apr	no cams
	Blank						08:15am	17:00pm	13:30pm
First Egg Hatches	Blank						13-May	03-May	05-May	02-May	10-May	05-May	09-May	01-May	29-Apr	04-May	08-May	no cams
Ringing Date	Blank						no ringing in 2017	n/a	24-May	23 May	29 May	25 May	30-May	no ringing in 2009	20-May	26-May	01-Jun	-
First Fledging	Blank							16-Jun	17-Jun	11-22 June	19-22 June	14-17 June	18-22 June	14-16 June	9-11 June	07-Jul	23-Jun	07-Jul
	Blank
No of Eggs Laid/Hatched/Fledged.	Blank						04/03/2003	04/04/2004	04/03/2003	04/03/2003	04/04/2004	04/04/2004	04/04/2004	04/04/2002	04/04/2004	04/04/2004	04/02/2002	3?/3/3
	Blank																	1M;2F
Chick Ringing Orange Ring No. (Gender)	Blank						none ringed	-	030 (F)	026 (F?)	021 (M)	016 (M)	012 (F)	none ringed	008 (M )	003 (F)	001 (F)	not colour-ringe
(Note: orange ring on left leg; silver on right leg)	Blank								031 (F)	027 F?)	022 (M)	018 (M)	013 (F)		009 (F)	004 (M)	002 (F)
	Blank								032 (M)	028 (M?)	023  (F)	019  (F)	014 (F)		010 (F)	005 (M)
	Blank										024 (M)	020 (M)	015 (M)		011 (M)	007 (M)

BETTER TABLE with chicks on separate lines

EVENT	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006
Mating Observed	x	x	x	x	x	-	March	Feb-March	22 Feb-30 Mar	22 Feb - 30 March	1 Mar	16-24 March	15 Mar	8-16 March	-	-	-
1st Egg Laid						5 Apr 06:30am	28 Mar 13:00pm	29 Mar 14:15pm	29 Mar	4 Apr	29 Mar	2 Apr	24 Mar	23 Mar	28 Mar	3 Apr	no cams
2nd Egg Laid						7 Apr 13:15pm	30 Mar 19:00pm	31 Mar 19:30pm	31 Mar	6 Apr	31 Mar	4 Apr	-	-	31 Mar	-	no cams
3rd Egg Laid						9 Apr 22:30pm	2 Apr 08:00am	3 April 04:20am	2 April	9 Apr	2 Apr	6 Apr	-	-	2 Apr	-	no cams
Last Egg Laid						11 Apr 08:15am	4 Apr 08:15am	5 Apr 13:30am	05 Apr	11 Apr	5 Apr	9 Apr	31 Mar	31 Mar	04 Apr	09 Apr	no cams
First Egg Hatches						13 May	3 May	5 May	2 May	10 May	5 May	9 May	1 May	29 Apr	4 May	8 May	no cams
Ringing Date						no ringing in 2017	n/a	24 May	23 May	29 May	25 May	30 May	no ringing in 2010	20 May	26 May	1 Jun	not ringed
Fledging						?	16 Jun	17 Jun	11-22 June	19-22 June	14-17 June	18-22 June	14-16 June	9-11 June	7 Jul	23 Jun	7 Jul
No of Eggs Laid/Hatched/Fledged.						4/3/3	4/4/4	4/3/3	4/3/3	4/4/4	4/4/4	4/4/4	4/4/2	4/4/4	4/4/4	4/2/2	3?/3/3
Ring 1								Orange 030 (Female)	Orange 026 (Female?)	Orange 021 (Male)	Orange 016 (Male)	Orange 012 (Female)	-	Orange 008 (Male)	Orange 003 (Female)	Orange 001 (Female)	Male not ringed
Ring 2								Orange 031 (Female)	Orange 027 (Female?)	Orange 022 (Male)	Orange 018 (Male)	Orange 013 (Female)	-	Orange 009 (Female)	Orange 004 (Male)	Orange 002 (Female)	Female not ringed
Ring 3								Orange 032 (Male)	Orange 028 (Male?)	Orange 023 (Female)	Orange 019 (Female)	Orange 014 (Female)	-	Orange 010 (Female)	Orange 005 (Male)	-	Female not ringed
Ring 4								-	-	Orange 024 (Male)	Orange 020 (Male)	Orange 014 (Male)	-	Orange 011 (Male)	Orange 007 (Male)	-	-