Friday 20 June 2008

Another peregrine sighted

Another peregrine was spotted in the city yesterday, on the roof of a building near the Ambulance Station by Bold Lane. It doesn't appear to have moved much, nor do other birds seem too concerned by its presence. It'll probably be there for some time if anyone wants to see it!

There's also a rumour of an Eagle Owl being seen in a similar situation on a roof on St Mary's Gate.

Meanwhile, we'd urge viewers to visit Froona's blog for her superb presentation of many of the webcam pictures from Derby ( and for her nice comments on our DVD) See June 19th

Here we have a short clip of one of our chicks and a parent on top of the tower in the morning sunshine yesterday. Notice how the youngster's breast has vertical stripes and a generally brown plumage on head and back, whereas Mum has horizontal barring and slaty grey plumage. (Sorry - just realised the vertical barring doesn't show up in the YouTube video very well)

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

No as good lucking as the other birds!!! but fun all the same. If it was hoped that it would deter the other birds not very successful I would say!!!

Anonymous said...

Hah! hah! Plastic peregrines -whatever next!

Anonymous said...

Oh yes very good,(lol) peregrin envy is a terrible thing, they will be poping up all over the place now.

Has anyone seen the youngster in the scrape feeding at all today? I have had it on screen since 8.30 this morning and as far as I can tell it has not moved from the scrape although it has been quite active, have not seen any food being delivered either!

Gaz

Froona said...

Yes he has. I have a lot of pics on autocapture. This morning 7:12 he appears with prey in the scrape, moving from the right to the left site. He has a big piece of prey plucking and eating. After he has finished, 7:48 moves to the right site again.
Froona

Karen Anne said...

froona,

I am curious about your technical setup? How on earth do you manage to capture so much from so many sites? What is autocapture?

Anonymous said...

last night at 6.30pm on st marys chambers roof.
I spotted juvenile peregrine eating it's prey.it returned to the tower 7.10pm .

Anonymous said...

I see someone's hugging the webcam again at 01:17 Derby time. How cute.......

John (temporarily in Toronto)

Karen Anne said...

Is the pudding cam maybe generating a little heat? Might it be comfy cozying up to it way up there in the (presumably) wind? Someone, maybe the same one, is there now.

Karen Anne said...

Or maybe it looks like a pseudo peregrine, and someone is lonesome for the sleeping pile...

Anonymous said...

One wet bird on the nest scrape edge - I wonder where the others are hiding out.

Anna, Ripley

Froona said...

A foggy day up the Tower. Have seen some juvies, looking a bit wet, racing on foot out of reach of the cam. One flying away. Not very busy.

Karen Anne, thank you for your question. This gives me the opportunity to answer.
The way I manage is total dedication ;) I work with 2 computers and all the webcams open. Scrolling from one to the other to capture images. For many concentrated hours until I have seen enough. making notes, writing down times etc.
A very dear friend sends me images from the Dutch cams.
It's hard work. For months now. I do have a job, so it has to be done in the evening and night.
Why? Because I'm writing a website about the Peregrine falcon and I need data from which I'm sure they're correct. By observing the behaviour, breedingperiods, hatching, fledging etc. in so many nestsites, I have reliable data I can use and compare. I did study biology but specialised in medical biology, hematology and chemistry, so this a bit jobrelated.
I never ment it to be this enormous though, but I did gain a extensive amount of new insights, data and facts because it is. So although I'm really exhausted I'm very happy I did.
Only left to do are 2 nestsites in Australia in September and then it is finished, at least for this year that is.
Next year again?
Oh yes absolutely!
For me the Peregrine falcon is eternal love, admiration and dedication.

Juvie in sight in front of the pudcam!

Froona

Karen Anne said...

Whew, froona, I am exhausted just reading about that :-)

Yes, two birds on camera, one on each. Is something on that protruding thing way below the nest box? It seems to be a favorite perch, but I am not sure what I'm seeing now.

Anonymous said...

I've been seeing something (dark grey) on 'that protuding thing' for some time and have been wondering what it is. It doesn't move so I wondered if it was some carrion.

Anna, Ripley

Anonymous said...

I seem to be unlucky today, no peregrins at all and even the live cam isn't working. Oh dear I'm getting frustrated. What miserable weather for the birds.

Froona said...

They haven't shown themselves very much today.
Maybe that thing below the nestbox could be some left over prey item?
The most exciting thing today was a big black "bromvlieg" fly exploring the nestbox hahahaha.
Empty nest syndrom is a serious disease ;))

Terry, Herts UK said...

As I write, one of the youngsters is in view; very close to pud cam. Watched an adult perched on the ledge of the nest earlier on.

Empty Nest Syndrome, eh? I wonder if my doctor has heard of that?! :)

Terry, Herts UK said...
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Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 7.53pm
Falcon on edge of nest, and one blocking the pudding cam.

Anonymous said...

around 12 noon sunday I spotted all 4 of the juvies at same time. 3 on the nest cam and 1 on the pud cam. Very exciting to know all 4 are well !!

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone
I'm just off to do my big sales pitch on behalf of the Derby Peregrine Project at Bucks Berks and Oxon Wildlife Trust's College Lake reserve. (My event being Bucks Badger Group's AGM) I hope to benefit both of these fabulous projects - and whatever a detractor has just been putting on this site, I still love you Derby and I love you all the more because of those wonderful peregrines - no, that's wrong, it's not "all the more" it's "specifically because of". I've even managed to actually spot a bird on the web cam just now (they seem to avoid me usually)
I love my badgers too, incidentally - more creatures that have suffered grievously at the hands of mankind. Their fate in the UK still hangs in the balance, a victim of politics.
Love from SueH, Wendover Bucks

Project Member (Derby Cathedral) said...

Ref. Write Your Own Caption - (Wed.June 18, see below).
This morning I was given the following two suggestions by a member of the cathedral congregation:

"You'll be immediately in front of the Bishop in the procession..."

"Let's do a few warm-ups while we're waiting for the rest of the choir to turn up."

Though I would share them with you!

Tony G

Karen Anne said...

1 bird on the nestbox, 3 at the pudding cam. I can't tell the young from the adults, tho.

Terry, Herts UK said...

Karen Anne,


It's not always easy to tell the young from the adults but the way I do it is this (though sometimes it takes a lot of patience):

Adults: White & grey chests with horizontal barring/speckles. No bronze bits on the back of their heads. Yellow surrounds to their eyes.

Juvies: Bronze and grey chests with vertical barring/speckles. Small bronze coloured patches on top of/behind their caps. No yellow around the eyes. Much shorter tail feathers.

Sometimes I can identify 007 (tiddler) because he has (or had) a tiny white patch on his right wing, in a place I can best explain as being his 'shoulder' when his wings are folded.

Hope that helps :)

Karen Anne said...

Thanks, terry. I will try to see if I can tell them apart with this.

But, I see almost no color from the cameras. A little bit in the background on some of the buildings, that's about it. Wonder if I have things set up wrong somehow?

Karen Anne said...

I looked on froona's site - I see what you mean by the vertical and horizontal! Thanks.

Terry, Herts UK said...

Turning the brightness/contrast up to maximum on your monitor helps a lot too ;)

Karen Anne said...
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Anonymous said...

eyasses have longer tail feathers and primarys. Natures way of giving them a hand while they learn their flying skills after their first moult they lose about 1/2 inch of their primarys and up to a inch off the lenght of their tail.Eyasses are hard down at about 8 weeks.
Regards
Colin

Karen Anne said...

I'm at max brightness already. I munged with the contrast but all I managed to do was lose the light red color of the building down below :-) I'm working on getting that back. Maybe the sun changed or something.

Anonymous said...

Everyone seems huddled together on the tower, and the racing clouds reveal that Derby has the same gale force winds as Buxton. Hoping for time to stop in Derby on way home. Yes, Sue, badgers very much persecuted animals - good luck with your talks. xxx Penny

Anonymous said...

Thanks Penny, it was quite a hairy time at the badger AGM - sitting in the splendid new yurt the Wildlife Trust have obtained wondering if it was going to take off in what I could charitably call "blustery" conditions. Hope the Derby 4 coped with it OK too. Badgers, like peregrines, are officially protected species but badgers have the spectre of the bTB (bovine TB) issue hanging over them. The Welsh Assembly have (or have not? - it's a rather confused situation) decided to go ahead with a cull and we wait with baited breath to hear what Hilary Benn will decree at Westminster. Some people might not like peregrines very much but at least it's 100% forbidden for anybody, even governments, to start killing them - and hurrah for that. If anyone has any thoughts on badger culling, do think about letting Hilary Benn (Westminster) and Elin Jones (Welsh Assembly) know.
Sue H, Wendover, Bucks

Anonymous said...

Pax Canada 11.28pm
2 falcons on the pudding cam

Terry, Herts UK said...

http://www.stopthecull.info/

Terry, Herts UK said...

John B,

I know a bit of html but can't figure out how to post links here in a 'clickable' way. You've clearly sussed it out so please explain. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Terry, Herts. Sorry to ramble on, everyone - honestly, it is the peregrines that primarily draws me to this site - even when I ramble on! If anyone is interested re badgers though, see also the Badger Trust website - www.badger.org.uk
I actually look as much on this peregrine blog as on the webcam because I find what others have to say (with rare notable exceptions, you know what I mean!) almost as fascinating and informative as actually seeing "our" magnificent birds.
SueH, Wendover Bucks

Karen Anne said...
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Karen Anne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Terry, Herts UK said...

Hi Sue,

I don't think there's anything wrong with some 'off topic' comments from time to time. Presumably, the good people who regularly read/contribute to this blog are not simply obsessed with falcons but nature lovers.

Even the posts from our anonymous peregrine haters have been thought provoking. Hence my posts about magpies on another thread.

So, like you, I enjoy and learn from the blog entries just as much as the webcams.

Obviously, I'm with you on the subject of badgers and truly hope the cull won't happen just to satisfy the greedy farmers. It beggars belief that this government might ignore all the scientific evidence and go ahead with a cull of protected animals.

Anonymous said...

as far as im concerned the faster the eagle owls start breeding better the better it will be for the song birds as we know eagle owls feed on hawks and the rate our song birds are declining is pathetic i once had a garden full of song birds now nothing i had to watch the hawks take one after another i now know of 11 eagles bred and released in the past 3 years and 3 pairs have done well so there is hope for our little birds yet