Updated (Correct date for Wild Weave on Cathedral Green is Friday 16th April, not 16th May as originally stated. See end.)
The kids are off from school this week, and many parents' thoughts turn to how to keep the young ones occupied.
Well, Derbys Museums are offering two free family activities tomorrow and Saturday with a Peregrine theme which might well fit the bill!
Friday 9th April 2010, 10am to 4pm.
Saturday 10th April 2010, 10am to 4pm.
Venue: The Silk Mill.- Derby's Museum of Industry and History
Suitable for all the family, "Peregrine Watch" is free of charge, and there's no need to book. Just drop in. Kids can make their own winged warrior mask to take home. There's a "Peregrine Trail" around the varied items on display in The Silk Mill, plus a chance to meet one of Derby Museums' very old mounted specimens from early last century. We've always shied away from naming our wild birds, but just for a bit of fun with the children, we're running a little competition for the day to name our female specimen. We know very little about how she got into our museums' collections, but she must be well over 70 years old by now, despite looking a youngster. She's the second photo down in this information page.
I'm not sure what else my colleagues in Education and Outreach are planning, but The Silk Mill is a great place to visit on any day, so this'll undoubtedly add to the fun. There will be telescopes out on the Green for a chance to see Derby's peregrines around their nest site, providing the rain holds off.
The Silk Mill is right next to Cathedral Green and the River Derwent, as well as being close to the city's shopping centre.
If you don't fancy this activity, there are plenty of other Museum Events during the year, and a wide range of changing Temporary Exhibitions, too. My current favourite is "Into The Weave" and even if you miss it there'll be a chance to see the creator of this room-sized woven willow installation at work again in a big public event called Wild Weave by The Silk Mill on Cathedral Green on Friday April 16th from 11am to 3pm. It's free and everyone who wants to can help create a huge woven artwork out of ribbons which should be taking on a magical "web-like" form.
Thanks Marski2009 and Clare for their Flickr images used here.
57 comments:
Both birds on nest platform.
Thank you for the info above, it will be a sunny day by all accounts.
Both parents are at the scrape tonight. It looks like the Tiercel is on the eggs and to falcon on the ledge probaly checking his performance.
Looks like she is giving him a talking to to get him off the nest! Again!
The tiercel won - he is still on the eggs!
Excuse the typos in my previous post! I was typing in very dim lighting.
A peregrine, possibly the falcon, has just landed on the tower with what looks like a large-ish item of prey.
20.21 - change of egg duty, tercel now on.
Craig, Nottingham
Peregrine just arrived on nestbox ledge rhs - time for a change of sitter?
Here's an interesting fact - a tiercel (or a tier-sell apparently) can dive at speeds upto 150mph!! Which is nearly as fact as me on my bicycle.
If anyone's in Derby this weekend can they let me how the infra red camera works?
Thanks!
Morning all. See nothing has changed since last night.
Penny Black wrote:
"a tiercel (or a tier-sell apparently) can dive at speeds upto 150mph!!"
The tiercel or tercel is the male. Perhaps you mean Peregrine Falcon in general. As for the speed I watched a, I think it was a countryfile, programme some years ago in which they had a section on Peregrines and they do more than 150mph. So I looked it up on google and found a nice BBC site -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Peregrine_falcon
There is a small video on the front called Terminal velocity, which says they can go upto 200mph. It shows you some other interesting vids.
Craig, Nottingham
11.53, time for a changeover, is that the female back on?
A changeover has just taken place, 6.15pm. I think it's the falcon sitting now.
No, I think I'm wrong - it's the tiercel on the eggs.
There was a changeover at 20.47hrs, no messing about this time!
0.33, neither mum nor dad are sitting on the eggs and haven't done so for a couple of minutes... is there something the matter? Where are they?
Craig, Nottingham
There was no peregrine in sight on the webcams and the four eggs are all alone... I watched for 5 minutes but the falcon has just returned, just taking wing excercises or feeding no doubt.
0.41, mum's come back and is on the eggs. Wonder why she left.
There are also 4 eggs in the nest on the Sheraton Hotel in Hamilton, Ontario.
http://falcons.hamiltonnature.org/
There are some pics of other years if you click on 'Gallery' on the top right of the page.
About 200 mph seems to be the generally accepted maximum speed for a diving (stooping) Peregrine of either gender (though I have seen 242 quoted). The figure of 150mph must date back to the days when technology wasn't up to the job of measuring it. They're not, however, the speediest creature in level flight. That accolade goes to a familar town resident of the summer months - the common Swift. For years the Asian Needle tailed swift held the record at 106 mph but this is now thought to be questionable.
Falcon on scrape at present.
Any guesses as to when the first egg with crack anyone? It must be getting close now surely?
@ Ann (Canada): I think we've got to wait a couple more weeks yet for the first one to hatch.
My guess is for 2nd May. Maybe a crack appearing the day before?
SaraC, Derby
Ann - It'll be a while yet. Incubation lasts about a month give or take a day or three. The first egg didn't appear until 24/3 and incubation proper didn't start until the clutch was all but complete.
Anne, last year the first egg was laid a day before this year's first and the first hatching was on 29th April. Suspect we've got to be patient for another couple of weeks of so!
Ann (Canada) wrote:
"Any guesses as to when the first egg with crack anyone? It must be getting close now surely?"
If the earlier figure of 33 days incubation is correct then we are looking at the eggs hatching (hopefully) in the week commencing the 26th April.
(p.s. sorry if this gets posted twice, using a work computer and it's not liking me this afternoon)
Thanks everyone for the guesses, I could not remember from the past 2 years how long it takes for incubation. Been so busy getting our new home ready have not had time for this site as I really would like to have. I miss you all. Just have to keep checking in every now and then, unable to be glued to the screen like I have been past two years. So we play the waiting game a little longer then. Thank you and lets hope all goes well this year, with no injuries or deaths for the new family. Mum looks quite content this morning I see.
Not sure if it is the angle but it looks like the tiercel on the eggs at the moment.
I don't think it is the tiercel, Phoebe. I was watching the live feed in the background and the male flew in just now, then flew off when she didn't show any inclination to move. I think it's just the end-on angle we're seeing her at.
It's pretty windy up there - the camera was shaking for the first time in ages. But they'll be OK.
1pm and Dinner is served, dinner for 1 by the looks of it. In he/she comes with a nice juicy pigeon (I think it was) and then off he/she goes again.
I think it's the teircel on the eggs, I may be wrong. The other bird looked the bigger, but it's hard to tell with the cameras.
That third camera watching over the stonework, is that above the nest?, is where dinner is being devoured.
Bon appetit.
Craig, Nottingham
There's a peregrine half-visible behind a column on the tower. It looks as if it may have some prey.
Have they just changed over? I came back to the computer to see neither bird on the eggs, and a peregrine on the nestbox ledge rhs. It then went & sat on the eggs. It looks big enough to be the falcon again so I wonder whether it was just a wing-stretch - did anyone see?
Yes, it was a changeover, AnnieF, albeit a very quick one.
Right, back to work for me. Deadlines looming.
One on the eggs, looking serene; another on the tower, looking majestic.
I passed Jury's Inn at 2pm, and could see a peregrine on the letter Y, having a late lunch!
Has anyone seen the juvenille that was hanging round the cathedral lately?
Both birds on nest platform.
Quick change over, falcon on eggs now.
There's just been a swift changeover & the tiercel's on the eggs now.
I have been looking off and on for days and have missed every changeover. I've only ever seen a bird sitting patiently until just now when i saw three of the eggs. I am away now for a month and will not be able to log in. So happy viewing, everyone, and I look forward to catching up when I return.
19:48, an attempted change over, but the male is sat firm on them eggs.
Female is just standing over him, pitty it doesn't have sound I bet she's telling him to shift it.
3 minutes and he's sat fast. How much longer will this standoff (or sitoff) take?
He hasn't taken his eye off her yet. 5 minutes come and gone.
Female caved in 19:54. Well sat matey. Breath your sigh of relief.
The falcon flew in at about 19.51hrs and stood over the tiercel for about 3 minutes, trying to persuade him to let her on, but he looked unimpressed, so she flew away again!
20:33, female is back, male has moved off, nice and simple.
Well I've just spent at least 8 minutes watching the falcon doing her utmost to persuade the tiercel to give her the eggs. He was crouched over them, his head to one side and so low it was almost touching the gravel, and she at one point bent down too, so they were almost beak to beak! He was extremely stubborn, but eventually, at about 13.24hrs., he gave in. He didn't seem very happy, but she wasn't going to take no for an answer this time.
Any chance of some video of Annie's 15 April 2010 13:32 event?
I'll try tomorrow lunchtime, but I like many others are working flat out on other museum deadlines at the moment, so I make no promises.
Keep reporting the best events when you see them happen as they happen - I have about 3 to 4 days to retrieve them before they get written over. But if they need editing down then that takes me even longer and it all has to be done at at home.
PS - and rather off- topic, but if anyone has clear skies in the UK this evening around 8.45-9.15 you will be able to see Venus, Mercury AND a crescent moon all in very close proximity in the West just after sunset. All visible with the naked eye, too, if there isn't too much volcanic ash in the way! Sadly it's cloudy in Derby right now!
I think the tiercel is getting rather apprehensive - he's on the eggs, facing outwards and frequently glancing up towards the tower, where it looks as if the falcon is feeding.
A rather brave/foolhardy pigeon has just landed on the tower!!
The video clip from yesterday lunchtime is currently being uploaded to YouTube. This may take another half an hour. 'fraid I wont have time to embed it in the blog until later in the weekend. You can view it on Youtube by searching on derby cathedral peregrines, and finding our channel (named vc57uk) where all our videos are located.
In haste
Nick M.
I've just watched the YouTube video - it's even better second time round! Thanks for that, Nick.
One on the eggs, one on the tower.
He's fast asleep on the eggs, with his head tucked into his left wing, and she's still standing on the tower.
Both in exactly the same positions as an hour ago.
No change at present.
Hopefully there will have been an egg hatching before I leave for England on 3rd May. I will try and visit the Cathedral (time permitting) as I will only be 'down the road' in Burton and/or Mickleover, but my visit is only for a week, so not sure.
When will the Peregrine Watch Points be set up this year?
pidgeon was on the tower cam
@steph(Canada)
Do pop into Derby Museum and say Hi if you're able, Steph. Shame you aren't coming 3 weeks later - you could visit Derby's only glow worm colony which is in Mickleover. (These little beetles are amazing)
But rest assured, we should have eggs hatching by then. 29th-30th April is our "due date".
We won't be announcing Watch points until we know we actually have some chicks to watch. Some years an entire clutch can fail, then be fine the following year. However, Nick Brown and his stalwart band of volunteers are already lining up dates for you. There are likely to be about three watchpoints per week, but they'll probably only start after mid-May when the chicks are large enough for there to be anything to see from the ground at Cathedral Green in Derby.
Anyone else planning a trip to Derby to see our birds?
New blog post coming shortly.
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