Wednesday 7 December 2016

All change

As you will have noticed, our cameras have been off-line since November. This was caused by changes at Derby City Council which now prevent us using their IT networks. However, moves are underway to have things up and running again for the 2017 season.

We recently abseiled down and removed all our cameras. An extreme step, you may think, but all part of plans to make good the wear and tear on our ten-year old nest platform. One of our old analogue cameras will  be disposed of completely, whilst two others have been cleaned inside and out, re-sprayed and made ready for re-installation. We recently acquired some new cameras which we are making ready for installation.

We have received a kind offer from a long-standing supporter, Ashley Sims, to meet the cost of this work, which we'll tell you more about once it's all completed.

We hope to have everything sorted out in the next four weeks or so, but this is dependant upon on having a good 'weather window' for abseiling and the ability to schedule in some major work with the help of Derby Mountain Rescue Team. We shall still need to get our cameras configured to new networks, which we're hoping will also happen quite soon.

Nick Moyes and Nick Evans prepare to abseil down
from the top of the tower on 2nd December.

It's been ten years since Nick Evans constructed the first nest platform for us back in 2006. We've been keeping a careful watch on it over the last few years, and eventually realised it had got into quite poor shape.  Our intention is to sort these problems out before the start of next breeding season, and  in advance of some major re-roofing work which is about to begin next January at the Cathedral.

We'll tell you more when we have positive news about the next stages, so for now it's a case of "watch this space!" rather than "watch those webcams!"

The Project Team

PS: if the guys from datazonedirect are reading this - you've sent us the wrong length cables this time, guys! It'd really help if you can get replacements to us in the next couple of days.

6 comments:

Kate said...

Well done TEam cant wait to view again.
Thank you so much Ashley you will be appreciated. so very kind.
Kate

Wendy Bartter said...

Wonderful news, can't wait to get new recordings of the Peregrine pair, have missed those cams & so pleased to hear that you are able to upgrade everything ... Well done team & many grateful thanks to Ashley for the funding!

Helen said...

This evening's Plant Earth 2 programme on Cities included some dramatic footage of a peregrine hunting in New York. It's available to watch on iplayer on the link below. The peregrine sequence starts at around 6 minutes 25 seconds into the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0861m8b

Wendy Bartter said...

Many thanks for link Helen, watched that most dramatic footage!

Helen said...

Both peregrines were sitting on the nearby hotel yesterday lunchtime.

Joyce S Derby said...

Both peregrines up on the lettering on the South side at Jury's Inn early this afternoon