Getting egg-citing!

While we wait for the first egg, here are a couple of photos of our pair taken very recently by local photographer Colin Pass. Being a falconer as well as an addict of our cathedral birds, Colin refers to the female as the 'falcon' and the male the 'tiercel', as you can see.
The photo of the tiercel shows one of the three 'gargoyles' situated above the nest platform.
When you look at the so-called 'pudding cam' images, you see the top (or more correctly and rudely, the bottom!) of the mythical beasts which were carved from the sandstone by the mediaeval stone masons in the 1530s.

Strictly speaking I was advised some time ago that 'gargoyles' are carved stonework which have holes running through them allowing water to drain off the roof above them.....usually through an open mouth. So the Derby ones are not gargoyles but 'grotesques' ......though I still find myself calling them gargoyles!

Donations: following a comment to the previous blog entry about reminding people of the need for donations to keep the project up and running, one of the most dedicated followers of our web cams, Jennie in Hong Kong, is shortly coming to the UK on a business trip. While here she's going to visit Derby, see the birds for herself and also make a donation to the project, avoiding the bank charges which are a deterrent to making a donation from overseas.

Jennie has already provided the local paper with a quote saying how much the Derby birds mean to her and the local BBC radio station hopes to catch her for a quick interview when she is here. Jennie found the site very early on and her comments have appeared regularly since then. You can see a big red dot on Hong Kong when you look at the Clustr map on the blog. The map shows where folk are logging on from around the world.

We've even had some dots from the middle of the Pacific ocean and I had wondered if these were from Midway Island or perhaps an interested loggerhead turtle 'loggering' on......who knows what they get up to out there in the oceans!

Nick B (Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

Ps To make a donation, ring the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust office (01773 881188) in office hours and the team there will be happy to take your money from you then and there - or explain how to do this should you live abroad (or email enquiries@derbyshirewt.co.uk). For reasons related to the ending of the financial year in a few days time, we would prefer donations to be made AFTER 1st April so that they don't have to be accounted for (and spent) in this financial year....but if you are desperate to part with your money, don't let that stop you!