The partners in the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project are now starting to turn their thoughts to next season to ensure things work well (or even better.)We've all been delighted by the positive comments so many of you have left. But rather than seek more praise, we'd like to ask you for your own suggestions for next year's webcam season. Perhaps you've watched from the other side of the world, or have sat below Derby's magnificent cathedral to see the birds for yourself. What worked well for you, and what worked badly? What would you have loved us to have done that we didn't do? Please tell us!
And if you are involved in education, or have watched with young children, what could we do next time to make your experience even richer? Have you used our webcam images in a classroom situation? Were there problems accessing our webcam, homepage, or this blog? Would you have liked full speed video? Could we do more to help you meet your own teaching goals?
Of course, we already have some ideas of our own, but we really want to consider your views too.
Click the "comments" link below this entry to leave a public comment, or email them privately to us at peregrines@derby.gov.uk If possible please tell us roughly where you are from and how you have used the webcams. (as a solitary viewer; with a family; as a teacher; frequent or irregular visitor etc)
In answer to some recent questions, we will definitely be keeping the webcameras running using the Streamdays service for at least another three months as there's still some irregular activity around the nest platform. After that we may slow down the refresh rate until 2008. We'll see. Of course, this blog will also remain active for some time yet, and certainly won't disappear.
Tony, Nick and Nick
for Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project
46 comments:
I thought the webcams had already stopped working when I go to the site there is no picture.
Anyway for next season I would love to see full streaming and if possible sound. What about a webcam on another building looking over at the nest so we can see the birds coming and going. Perhaps we would be able to look at all camera views on the same page instead of clicking from one camera to another.
i agree with jan, i'd love to be able to see all camera views at the same time and have the option to enlarge on one particular view without losing the other.i'd also like to be able to see the birds from afar as they swoop in to land on the nest and live streaming would be fantastic.
how about an 'evening' peregrine watch on the cathedral green perhaps once or twice a week, just for people like me who are unable to come during the day due to work commitments, this way local after-school clubs like brownies and scouts could be involved too.
A visitor on the tray at noon time. Jennie, HK.
Friday 1.30.p.m. One on camera, don't know which one, but a welcome sight!!!!
p.s. to above...for 2008...I will be happy whatever you do!!
Re: 2008 -- get the kids more involved, have a contest to name the new babies and have the names submitted by both local and www watchers from around the world. A little local advertising and web posting would generate lots of interest.
Great job to all involved with this project.
Ted in Maryland
i agree with jan and lindseys suggestions. It would be great to have sound especially. The sound of the pereguin is truly a spine chilling noise and makes the hair stand up on the back of the neck!! Also live stream would be great especially when we were waiting for the chicks to leave because all we saw was them standing on the edge and then nothing!! We never actually saw the maiden flight!!
It would be brill if we could see the birds from cameras on adjacent buildings so we could actually see them in flight.
Looking forward to next year already. It would be great if neighbouring counties could do the same. The webcams and blog have given me a great deal of pleasure and have given me some much needed "me time" and escapism from a stressful life both personal and proffessional!!
Heres to next year!!b
Full speed video would be great. Also, a camera that showed the cathedral and nest area so we could see the birds after fledging, and the parents landing, etc.
Money clearly means nothing to us :-) I am wondering if you can have a paypal link for donations.
In watching other full speed webcams, some seem to work well and others have problems. The San Jose, CA full speed video web cam, at (link broken in half so it doesn't get truncated)
http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?
publish_id=91/nest
now turned off, worked well. (Although it is in a small area of the screen, double clicking toggles it between that and full screen.)
Others, like Salt Lake City, don't work well, that was constantly freezing or going offline, so it might be worthwhile asking San Jose what hardware and software they are using.
Your blog is just super. It's frustrating to have a camera with no blog, like Dayton and Salt Lake City, so the birds disappear and you have no idea if they are okay or what.
You guys are doing a wonderful job, and it is so much appreciated.
Pax, B.C. Canada 9.37am
I too would love streaming video, and more cameras, but it all costs money, maybe it would be possible to get a sponser?someone even from tourism?or the wild life people.
I cant begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed being able to watch these birds, and to have a peek into the lives of the people watching the cams, I feel we have become a family all looking out for the falcons and their chicks,
being retired I am able to watch the nest most of the day and into the night.
Thank you for the wonderful job you
do, and your commitment of using your personal time to do it.
One thing that I feel would benefit all would be to add a series of measuring strips around the edge of the box (may be on the inside). This will provide an idea of the size of these birds as they grow and the wing span etc. This shouldn't cost much.
My order of preference for the expensive items would be:
1. Full streaming with sound on the existing cameras.
2. An additional camera allowing an overview so we can see the birds in other location on the cathedral.
3. A Gargoyle located camera with zoom,pan and tilt facility allowing for close-up food shots and remote bird locating such as the ariel mast and flat roofs.
All this said its been a great year and the web cams have helped tremendously taking into account the UK weather.
Well done team.
John S
Birdie on the ledge. Looks like it's raining.
Hi Karen, you stay up to check them out? that's amazing! Jennie, HK
Hello from Dayton!
I'm still seeing your falcons hanging out at the nest ledge, with such pleasure, since our birds truly must be on summer holiday...or so I hope. Of course the streaming would be great but I'm wondering if there's a way to put a hood or something on the actual nest to help out the brooding parents and of course the chicks when they hatch.
I'm with Karen Anne, you should try for a Pay-Pal or something similar to fund streaming at least for hatching time - the kaking and che-ruping noises are like no other bird that I know.
My students at school really enjoyed your beautiful setting at the cathedral and the green area, most of our downtown churches are surrounded by much taller buildings.
I'm sure that what you do will be appreciated again by all of us!
Jan
These are really useful suggestions so please keep them coming. We'll make a list and look at their feasibility and cost implications asap, working on some of the more immediately do-able ones as time allows. However, we all have 'proper jobs' to attend to, so we can't give this project 100% of our time all year round!
My own work includes line managing and finding funding for seven of our wildlife trust staff who get children and adults close to wildlife and try to develop and change their attitudes towards the endangered planet they will soon inherit. Nick M runs the museum's natural history unit single handed, so he too has many other calls on his time. Tony G, as head verger at the cathedral, has to do most of his peregrine support work in his own time since it doesn't quite fall into his current job description, much as he'd like it to! So please bear with us.....
Nick B
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust
Just coming up to 8am BST and there's a visitor to the nest ledge - shamefully, after all these weeks, I still can't tell the birds apart!
I think everyone's suggestions for 2008 have been great. Having sound would be fantastic, one of the positive aspects of the Springwatch clip was that we were able to see and hear the chicks at the same time. Occasional evening watches on the Green would also be a real bonus for those of us who can't get there during the day.
Liz, Derby
Forgot to say in the last message that the picture of the bird in flight is stunning - which member of the family are we seeing there?
Liz, Derby
I agree with Jan and Lindsey would love to see live without the delays. Have also enjoyed the storks live as someone mentioned earlier. But please do it again have had and still have some lovely sights. thrilled the other day when came into town and saw two of the birds perched on the cathedral, one on the box and the other in the arches above. Thank you everyone S
HI, Jennie, no, it's the time difference, I think Derby is five hours ahead of where I am, although I am occasionally a night owl.
About the hood idea, I have seen chicks in the Utah nest huddle in the sheltered area they have at one end of the nest. But I wonder if there is enough room in the Derby nest box for a partial hood without interfering with practice wing flapping or fledging, landing, etc.
just to let you know liz in derby its the adult female in the picture
I personally think that we should give the birds names its easier than saying mum and dad and also adults and children can relate to the birds a little better.
Live stream is a good idea only when the birds are there, I mean before fledging. I would prefer to watch video clips, the seven clips you put on this site are excellent(the only thing is nothing uploaded after 11May), we can watch them at any of our convenient time . Project members can easily capture the best moments by watching their video, and upload them as clips for our viewing. Jennie, HK.
By the way, i would also love to see how you professionals ring the birds, surely most of us will find this clip educational. Jennie, HK.
Jennie,
Here are some banding photos or videos, links broken so they don't get truncated -
From San Jose, CA
http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/SanJose
/video_player.htm
From Dayton
http://www.boonshoftmuseum.org/
falconcam.html
p.s. I think it is some degree of work for project folks to extract videos.
Bird has been on the ledge for awhile.
Pax. B.C Canada 1.56pm, bird is still on the ledge below the nest
2205 gmt and there looks like one of the family is on the ledge below the nest.
There are some great suggestions being made, both here and direct to us at peregrines@derby.gov.uk
Thank you. Obviously streaming video/audio is at the top of everyone's wish-list. We would dearly love to bring you this nest year - it does make all the difference. But unless we can find a sponsor willing to host us, it's doubtful we will have the funds to pay the considerable bandwidth charges. But we will pursue it, rest assured.
We did talk to (and review) a few other peregrine projects around the world before we got started, including Santa Cruz and Columbus, Ohio, and ensuring a reliable service we we got started did seem critically important. So when our video server siezed up within 12hr of going online for the first time, we did worry a bit. But that's been our only real hitch, though we do know the power supply within the Cathedral Tower is prone to failure a few times a year. (We seem to have been lucky so far).
To Jennie in HK, can I just say that there have been more than seven videos uploaded to this blog, but I'm afraid I haven't updated the main peregrine homepage with all their links, so thanks for the prompt. I'll try and address that asap.
You can find nearly all our video clips on youtube.com by searching on the keywords: peregrine derby cathedral.
I have been working on putting together a ringing video, filmed last year, but it's not quite finished yet. We are also talking with Derby University about the possibility of putting a 2007 season DVD together, showing the highlights. But it's early days on that, too.
Goodnight all.
Sunday 07.28 Looks like 'mum' looking out 'wistfully' (???) in the nest - with her long well developed feathers.
John
0823 gmt No signs of anything alive and kicking but there is definetly some thing well and truly dead!! There is a carcass in the exact same spot as last time!! Sunday dinner served up early!!
9.00 Just seen part of a carcass in the nest, but nothing living and breathing, so a bit disappointed as have been away for a week in Austria. I needn't have worried about missing 'the family' as to my delight Innsbruck have a family of at least five peregrines nesting on one of the towers of a beautiful church. Couldn't mistake the familiar peregrine call. Also saw Bird of Prey display with Eagles, etc. - awesome!
Anna, Ripley
Where has the carcass gone? Either it has come back to life or I have missed some activity!!
I think you guys who have organised this project have done such a good job, it's a bit of a hopeless task to try to better it. The main thing I got out of this project was to learn that peregrines aren't the desperately rare birds I thought they were (not that I'm now complacent) - or are they? Indirectly through this project, I learned that a first summer bird is presently in residence a couple of miles up the road from me (although, despite a number of early morning "wild goose chases", I STILL haven't seen the darn thing!!!!) However, during a trip to London's Globe Theatre (of all places?) this afternoon, I SAW A PAIR OF PEREGRINES (flying round the chimney stack of the building now used as Tate Modern) I'd never have known what it was that I saw if I hadn't been learning through this project. So, I think I'm saying that the best bit of the web-cam project is the learning that it stimulates. How could this be used in the context of children? Maybe to set up a competition for groups of children to keep their own diary of what they observe and what they learn. Results could all go on show at the museum and the winner could get - what? Maybe an invitation to write the final diary entry of the year with the fame and fortune that would involve!
I agree with the "wish list" items that it would be good to be able to hear the birds and to get a better idea of their size, Having seen a particularly brilliant picture of a chick being ringed (you know who you are, kind donor) I was astounded at the size of the HUGE feet. I just didn't pick that up from the web-cam.
I've also been fascinated to pick up on the just about world-wide "family" of watchers. I'd love to see the complete list and, being nosey, I wonder how on earth people found out about the project?
Sue Hetherington, Wendover
Hi Sue
I personally found out about this project like most things and that was word of mouth. How did you find out
Pax. B.c. Canada, I found the falcon site via the streamways cam site,they have cams from all over the world, I like the London cams.
because that was where I was born and raised before coming to Canada in 1957 :-)
Oh yes, I should have said how I found out too. Word of mouth - my brother just happened to be passing through Derby, saw the birds, was thrilled and told me as he knew I'd be thrilled too. Speaking as I was of one thing leading to another, I've been trying to find out more about the London birds I saw. From googling "London Peregrines" I've found they too had a webcam and will be setting up a watch point near Tate Modern. It just gets better and better!!! My heart will always belong to my first found love though, never fear - the Derby project. :-) :-) :-)
Sue H
Birdie on the ledge, I think, hard to see.
I don't remember quite how I got here. I have been watching palemale.com, with Lincoln Karim's wonderful telescopic photos of Pale Male, the redtailed hawk who lives in Central Park with his mate, Lola. I got there after the news stories of the horrid building management that took down their nest a few years ago (it was put back, but with a structure under it to "protect" the building, but which has somehow caused the 3(?) subsequent nesting attempts to fail to produce viable eggs after many years of viable eggs.
Somehow I got from there to watching the San Jose, CA peregrine web cam and then to here.
Hello from Dayton again -
I found this story while cruising the internet, and decided to post the link for all of you to read. It's a sweet rescue story:
www.danhaas.com/peregrine/
Enjoy!
Jan
it will be fantastic if london does start up a webcam. The trouble is i guess most chicks will have fledged by now though we could still see them feeding etc that will be a good idea for next year and that is to compare different nests ie rate of growth, what they are eating etc
i found out about derby peregrines through my husbands school, they had set up a webcam inside an empty birdbox, mounted on the school exterior and, waited to see who visited, it was wonderful when a mating pair of bluetits set up residence and the whole school was fascinated with the growth and development of the eggs/chicks. anyway, the webmaster created a link to many other webcam sites including this one and the rest as they say is history, ive been fixed ever since,
the school 'birdcam' is still set up with a wonderful array of videos and stills in the gallery, (although the nest is very much abandoned now,) but please do take a look and see what youve missed ; stretton handley primary school, alfreton, derbyshire
p.s 08;43 16th july
we have a beautiful visitor to the nest ledge right now
To anyonbe interested re webcams around thr world. If you 'Google'
'viewnestingbirds' you will get a fantastic site that lists everything, plus the links. Another is www.beakspeak.com which is brilliant. Hope this helps!!
No one on the cam at present!!
Oops!! re the above - the latter should read www.beakspeak.com/birdcams
thanks for the advice about the birdie web cams when i dont have my son pestering for the computer i will have to investigate!!
I'm not entirely sure if there was a London webcam this year or not but as has been mentioned, the chicks will have fledged by now. I THINK I have discovered that the RSPB may organise a telescope watch on Tate Modern later on - you'll have to research yourselves! Believe I've also read that there are just 1,500 breeding pairs of peregrines in the UK - bang goes my complacency! It shows how important every single nest site is. It's great to think that all of us watchers make it almost impossible for any man made bad thing happen to "our" birds - I reckon we are collectively guardian angels. I can certainly recommend peregrine watching whilst at the Globe theatre though - it was a fine experience to have one eye on a fabulous production of "Othello" and the other on peregrines. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when the birds called. I was extremely lucky with my seat position though so that the chimney was in my field of view.
Sue H , Wendover (back at the "still bust" actually)
Is there any way you can have a streaming video? Sometimes it is frustrating to watch when there is that delay between actual movements. I think it would make the experience much exciting when you could watch the movements without delay. Otherwise, I have enjoyed the site tremendously and think you have done a wonderful job. I live in Columbus, Ohio, USA and while our peregrines did not hatch their eggs, I still enjoy watching them. Thanks to all involved in the project for your dedication.
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