Thursday 5 November 2009

Praise from London; Film from Italy

The newly formed London Peregrine Partnership has an excellent website, well worth a browse. In particular, go to their 'Peregrines on the web' page where they say (completely unprompted):

"The Derby Cathedral site is by far the best in the UK, with regular updates, good notes and some excellent pictures."


Obviously we knew this anyway but it great when someone else 'in the business', so to speak, thinks so too!
Well done that man at the museum - you all know who he is! What a star!

Herewith also the photo of the church in Exeter where peregrines have nested for many years and which was the stimulus for setting up our cameras back in 2006/7. You can't see the nest site with the cameras trained on it because it's round the other side of the base of the spire - and anyway, the annoying peregrines have decided to nest inside a window completely out of view both from cameras or the ground!

Update: Our own web cams are down at the moment, as you probably know. We now know where the fault lies, and are waiting for an engineer to arrange to visit the Cathedral to repair the wireless link connecting us to The Silk Mill museum. Please bear with us.
Meanwhile here is a lovely YouTube video made by Paulo Taranto of the life of urban peregrines in Bologna, Italy. (Watch for the zoom shot with the policeman)



Nick B (Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

18 comments:

Pax Canada said...

was unable to get to the link, but googled it and found it:) very nice, a big pat on the back to all of you. What did our man at the museum do ???

Anonymous said...

Your link to the London peregrines doesn't seem to be working. Google London peregrines and the link to the same site works. Of course I'm using Firefox so that may not help

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I want to move to Derby. Wall to wall sunshine, even at night.

wayne1984 said...

nick the link you have used on here does not work.

here is a link to the same page that does work.
http://www.london-peregrine-partnership.org.uk/index.html

Peregrine Project Member (Nick M.) said...

Just to keep everyone informed, we now know where the fault lies in the broken webcam link. It's taken a couple of days to find the time to visit both ends of the radio link that connects Derby Cathedral to the outside world. Having ruled out the obvious faults, we called the IT guys yesterday who have today (Friday) confirmed that our wireless link system is faulty again.
Last time it was a problem with a radio unit inside one of Derby Museums' properties - The Silk Mill - but this time it's a small piece of our kit inside the bell-ringer chamber. We know it was knocked out when the power failed on Monday, so we're now waiting for the specialist engineering company to contact us to arrange a visit to repair or reconfigure the system.

Ann ( Canada ) said...

Well you can all give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back then. Well done and lets hope that next year will be even better. CONGRATULATIONS to all the team.

Pam said...

Beautiful video, thanks for posting that.

Karen Anne said...

What a wonderful video. Such detail, and such poetry. Froona would have loved that. I hope she can see it, better yet, I hope she has been reincarnated as a peregrine, she would be so happy.

Gio said...

Congratulations to the team!
I know you know, but I'm glad the Derby site is recognized as the best in England! ;)

And very happy to find on your page the video by Paolo Taranto. :D
Paolo collected different images taken in the past years at Felix&Aisha's, the pair nesting in Bologna, Fiera District.

Peregrine Project Member (Nick M.) said...

Hi Gio
Do you happen to know how Paolo got that video footage from inside. Is the nest site against an ordinary window in the tall building? It looks a most unusual position, so how was disturbance avoided?
Nick M.

Gio said...

Hi Nick!
Yes, the nest site is against an ordinary window in the building, it's hidden with a thick paper so the falcons cannot see inside, avoiding any disturbance (we were worried about at the beginning, but nothing bad ever happened. Paolo practiced a hole to film them and you can see they look like they aren't aware of a human presence.
Also for the ringing the chicks are generally taken inside one by one: this way the parents aren't getting much troubled, all's over in 10 minutes.
I'll be in Bologna on Tuesday 10th to meet Paolo and other friends, can ask anythink you like!
We have a younger pair nesting successfully on the Cathedral tower (!) for some years and we hope to spot them. As your pair, they don't migrate and we know they are around all the time.
Will post the link to the pics, if some decent could be taken. :)

Karen Anne said...

Nick M.,

If Gio doesn't know, there is a flicker set and on those photos there is an email address. I have not included it here so spam spiders don't pick it up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raptorbiol/

Gio said...

Thank you for the link, Karen Ann.
I know Paolo and his photos! :)
On the second and third page you can see the adults and the juvies (2008) of St. Petronio in Bologna Main Square.
Then a couple of pics of the Florence Duomo where Giotto and Monna Tessa are still nesting, maybe the best tasting pair in the world about architecture.. ;))

Anonymous said...

Hello Derby Project
Sorry to have stayed away so long - but I'm still here and supporting you in all you do. Thanks for that link to the London Peregrine Project, it works fine for me! And the praise for Derby is totally correct, you are the best project. Yes, you've had luck, but you've worked hard and well to make the very best of your luck. Thank you for all you've done and for the pleasure, wonder and knowledge you've brought to me for one!!
PS how is 010 faring?

Anonymous said...

The link to peregrines on't web provides a link to a falcon site in Holland at De Mortels Comms Tower. It connects to a very good video.

wayne1984 said...

goodbye for a week or so peregrine people. sorry to the nicks, for not being able to catch up bfore hand but ill be back soon

Anonymous said...

I drove past Jurys Inn on Sunday 8th November at about 5pm, and could see one of the peregrines perched on the 'Y' of the lettering.
from Joyce S in Derby

Audrey (London) said...

Lovely close-up of peregrine on pud cam at 21.43p.m.!!