Last Post - Froona Veldhuis

(Further Update: 9th April. see end)



It is with a deep sense of loss and not inconsiderable sadness that I have to report the news that one of our most enthusiastic peregrine watchers, Froona Veldhuis in Holland, died earlier tonight. The following information was posted late this evening by a regular contributor to an English discussion thread on the Slechtvalken Forum:



"It is with a heavy hart that I have to inform you that Froona has passed away tonight, with her brother and her neighbour at her side"









There will be many hundreds of blog visitors who won't have heard of Froona or read her postings. but there will be thousands more who will. Her enthusiasm for Schlechtvalken (peregrine falcons) was astounding. She seemed to monitor our webcameras here in Derby even more fastidiously than the team members do.









One more than one occasion I found myself capturing some special moment on the webcam feed in my office or at home, rushing to post it on our blog, only to find that Froona had already put up three or four pictures of the same moment on her own site. More than once last year I simply gave up and linked people straight to her blog to see more of our pictures!





Froona's blog was unusual because it reported on the progress of a vast number of peregrine nest sites around the northern hemisphere at any one time. Running this project, I had little time to look at at, but it gave me a valuable understanding of the advancing seasons when, in one place, she would report on the breeding state of sites to the south, such as Rome, Zwolle, de Mortel and Brighton. She also ran a detailed peregrine website, though most is in Dutch




I never met Froona, but she had spoken of wanting to come to Derby soon and we've had much direct email contact.. It was through a number of anonymous comments left on this blog that some of us learnt of her going in to intensive care recently, then of make a slight recovery. I recently sent an email to her in the expectation that her recovery would continue and she would open it on her eventual return. I told her of the many well-wishers who had left comments for her, and wished her well on your behalf. I'm sorry she will never have known of them.


As a reflection of her deep enthusiasm, I can do no more than link you to Froona's blog where her very last post was on 23rd March, celebrating Derby's first egg. The day before she had posted the amazing seqeunce of our birds mating, sent to her directly by Derby photographer, Colin Pass.



For those wishing to leave a tribute to Froona, may I suggest that we reserve sole use of Comments to this blog entry purely for those relating to her? If you're willing to do so, please give your name, town and country, and I will pass them all on to the Schlechtvalken Forum.


For all other comments and webcam observations , please post to the previous blog entry for 3rd April.

Nick Moyes
on behalf of Nick Brown and Tony Grantham
Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project



Over 40 comments were left by blog readers in memory of Froona over the course of the last 48 hours. These have all now been posted on page 5 of a special condolences thread which has been created on the Dutch Schlechtvalken Forum . I failed to mention in my original piece that it was Froona herself who created the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Webcam logo which we now use in our multi-view. It incorporates a picture of one of our own chicks, and first appeared on her main website which has a large section in Dutch on Derby's peregrines. She was only too happy to grant my request for me to embed it into our multi-view video stream, where it remains to this day.
Update 9th April: A slim white candle burnt slowly today inside Derby Cathedral. Far from this place a farewell service was held to mark the passing of a friend that none of us had met, but somehow all of us felt we knew. For many, Froona’s passion and enthusiasm was the same as our own; she just expressed it better, and in a unique way. There is now a second webforum on which you can read messages left in her memory, including photos from her funeral service held today. http://is.gd/rGZd-