Sunday 17 March 2024

How long before we have an egg? No time at all!

Two hours after writing the post below, the female laid her first egg (at about noon on 17th), a day earlier than last year!
Thanks to Vic P and Jean for spotting it so quickly!
We expect her to lay three more at roughly two day intervals to complete her clutch.
Note that it is normal for the egg to be left on its own. Full incubation won't begin until the third or fourth egg is laid.


Screengrab by Helen Naylor
And here's a video of egg laying made by Wendy Barrter. The egg appears at 1 min 40 seconds in:



And a later one made at 17.27 showing the egg very clearly:




>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Last year the first egg was laid on 18th March and that's tomorrow.

Wendy's video's (see the links in the comments to the previous blog post below) suggest the female is showing all the signs of being ready to lay.
Mating will have been taking place though this doesn't occur within sight of the web cam but usually higher up on the tower, often on the 'bottoms' of the grotesques, the 16th century animals carved by the stone masons in the shape of a dog, a lion, a pig etc.


2023 photo of mating by Dave Farmer (easyphotography.co.uk 

And below is a old photo of a lion grotesque.

BTW, a grotesque is a carving of an (often mythical) animal but with no actual function. A gargoyle is a grotesque with a hole running through it and out of the mouth which drains water off a roof above.


A lion grotesque by Gareth Walker


Who will spot the first egg and when will it be laid?
We should soon find out!

Talk worth attending!

There's a talk about The Peregrine this Friday (22nd, 7.30pm) in Derby for the county bird club by the authors of a brilliant new book on this falcon.
£2.50 entry. Details: Meetings and Trips (derbyshireos.org.uk)

The Project Team

Ps. This spring, two trainees at the wildlife trust, Emma Harpham and Chloe Davenport-Kelly will be delivering assemblies and sessions about our peregrines in a few selected primary schools in the Derby area. If you are a teacher at one and would like a visit, do get in touch. (peregrines@derbyshirewt.co.uk)

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Clean up day

Today (28th) Nick Moyes abseiled down to clean the nest platform, add new gravel and clean and reposition the cameras and to Nick Evans who assisted. A BIG THANKS to them both.
Wendy Bartter's much speeded up video shows Nick M cleaning the gravel and cameras. It actually took him 45 minutes!



Nick Evans built the first platform and when it eventually showed signs of rot, he kindly build us a second one, the one which is in place now.


Nick Moyes has worked voluntarily on this project since 2005, setting up the web cams and their connectivity to the web. The project wouldn't exist without him nor would it have lasted so long.
 

Nick Moyes and Nick Evans, during a previous abseil

Here's Wendy Bartter's very speeded up video showing Nick M at work on the platform/scrape. What took 45 minutes now takes only a few!



Now we hope to see plenty of mutual display between the male and female peregrines as we approach egg laying.

The Project Team

This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust in conjunction and with the excellent support of Derby Cathedral, Derby City Council's IT team and Cathedral Quarter.



Saturday 17 February 2024

New photos of our birds, that old egg and two talks on peregrines

Last week, regular photographer Dave Farmer took some excellent photos of the falcons from the ground and they are well worth sharing:

The female on the platform edge. Dave Farmer


'She who conquers'. Photo: Dave Farmer

The male keeps a watchful eye. Photo Dave Farmer


And just to be clear: the egg you can see on the webcams is an addled egg from last year and not a new 2024 egg. We hope to remove it and clean up the platform before any eggs are laid this spring.

Wendy Bartter is putting almost daily videos of the birds on YouTube and the links to them are in the comments to each blog post.
Find those she has made in the last few weeks in comments to the previous blog post entry by scrolling down and new videos in comments to this post.
Coming up are two talks by the authors of a new book on The Peregrine Falcon, Richard Sale & Steve Watson. One is in Buxton on 9th March and the other in Derby on 22nd March
For details see: Meetings and Trips (derbyshireos.org.uk) .


The Project Team

Tuesday 16 January 2024

Peregrine egg thief gets jail sentence

A covert operation by the RSPB has resulted in a man from mid Derbyshire being jailed for stealing peregrine eggs from a nest in a quarry near Bolsover.
This is the first custodial sentence for this offence in the county and a welcome step up from the paltry fines which have previously been handed out.



See also:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-67987416 

The theft of peregrine eggs for sale (usually as chicks once they have hatched) continues since they fetch such high prices in the Middle East. 
The RSPB, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and the police have been working on this issue for several years with covert cameras up at several nest sites in remote parts of the county.

The Project Team
The Project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust

Monday 1 January 2024

Welcome to 2024!

 Happy New Year to all our Peregrine watchers!

The indefatigable Wendy Bartter continues to make many video clips of our birds through the relatively quiet winter months and puts them on You Tube.

Here's the one she made today - 1st January 2024 which has the female  preening in the sunlight and then repeatedly calling to her mate (from about 2 minutes in).
To find others, please check out the comments to previous posts...and also commenst to this post for any new ones.
Thanks Wendy so much for all you excellent work with these videos!


Last year we had over 224,000 views showing just how popular these Derby peregrine are across the globe. Our Project began back in 2006, and webcameras and were installed a year later. Since that time the cameras have attracted over 5.1 million unique visitors!
Scroll down the blog and you will find a Clustrmap showing where all our blog visitors and readers have come from over the past month.

Best wishes

The Project Team

Tuesday 14 November 2023

Autumn is over but pair bonding continues!

As we move into winter, with longer nights and shorter days, our peregrine pair remain active on the tower with the female visiting the nest platform regularly and some bonding behaviour also being observed.
Dave Farmer took this excellent photo of her the other day as he walked past below:

Dave Farmer's photo taken last week 

In addition Wendy Bartter continues to make many video clips and to put the links in the comments accessed at the foot of each blog post.
This recent video shows a long bonding session:



And here's more bonding in a video made on 28th November:


Video by Wendy Bartter

Post by The Project Team

This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with The Cathedral, Derby City Council and Cathedral Quarter as partners in its success. The project began in 2006.

Sunday 24 September 2023

Into winter

Thanks to the regular videos that Wendy Barrter puts on You Tube we know that the adult pair are returning to the nest platform (aka 'scrape') from time to time.
They will continue to do this throughout the winter to ensure no intruding peregrines think the nest is unoccupied.

                                Female flying towards the camera by Dave Farmer. May 2023

Here's one of Wendy's recent videos but there are more if you scroll down to the comments to the previous blog post. This one shows the female preening on the platform.



The Project Team
This project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, with The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and Derby City Council (especially its IT team) as partners.