Sunday 25 May 2008

Sorting IT Out

Our four chicks have been strong enough to be able to move about the nest platform for the last few days, and now seem to have taken a liking to the right hand side. For this reason we've switched over from "multi-view" to giving a full-sized image from the right-hand camera.

If the weather allows the licenced ringers to abseil down in the next few days, we'll ask them to pick off the item that has been dangling in front of the lens for some time now and obscuring the view. The normally sheltered east face of the tower has been taking the wind and light rain full-on over the last few days, and from time to time it seems that these old prey remains have been blown off. But they soon come back into shot. If we do ring the chicks there may well be a break in the video feed.

Many of you have asked about our brand new live a/v stream, and why you're only getting sound, but no pictures. (And sometimes neither). I'm afraid that at this moment we have no answers for you. We do know that the new PC installed inside the Cathedral tower to encode the video has had a few problems in sending out the pictures to Media on demand who are genrously hosting it for us. The PC was set to reboot itself every day, but clearly this isn't quite doing the trick, so the IT experts at Capita will be looking into this for us just as soon as possible, as we'll report back when we can.

In the meantime, if you live locally, do come down to Full Street in Derby for the daily Peregrine Watchpoints - and after using the telescopes and chatting to the volunteers from the Wildlife Trust, why not go off and visit the Cathedral, one of our museums or do some shopping in the Cathedral Quarter?

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Breakfast is served I see....

For all you people lacking video feed out there (like me) you can keep the audio going on Media Player and continue watching the still webcam. With the rapid refresh rate it's almost as good as the real thing.

Anonymous said...

Just to say thank you to the great folks who are doing all the work for the peregrines and to bring us the webcam. I am sure they are working far more than their job requires and there are volunteers as well.

Anonymous said...

Am new to peregrine watching and have been fascinated by the activity on the platform. A couple of questions for the more experienced watchers! Do the parents not attack the ringers during the ringing process? Can we be certain they won't reject the chicks after the ringing process?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue,

I'm no expert but can answer your questions.

Yes, the adult birds often attack the abseilers, hence the hard hats and other protective gear.

You can be quite certain the chicks won't be rejected. If there were any chance of that, the ringing/banding wouldn't happen. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, sue,

In the photos and video I've seen of peregrine banding, yes the parents may try to attack the people taking the chicks from the nest boxes. That's why the people wear helmets and safety glasses and thick jackets, etc.

In the San Jose banding last year, (if I remember correctly) both parents made constant passes over the fellow and as he had finished and was climbing away I think it was the Dad who really whomped his back, but birds and human were okay.

Always in the ones I've seen, the parents return immediately when the chicks are back in the nestbox.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much!

Anonymous said...

Bet those little peregrine chicks are going to have some funny dreams tonight! Yes, birds do dream - we used to keep pet budgies, and they certainly did. xxx Penny