Peregrines shot in Malta and a radio programme

Note: for newcomers to this blog, the Derby peregrine breeding season has ended, the four young have fledged and begun to move away. You will still see birds, usually the adults, from time to time on the web cams so it is worth looking. This blog and all three cameras will keep running right through the year. Check out Video 3 which is fully live with sound.
To read about the later stages of the breeding season, scroll down a few posts to late June.
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Update: a 30 minute programme about Bird Hunting in Malta, the first of two, will be broadcast at 11am on Tuesday 31st July on BBC Radio 4.
News has come in that the male of a pair of peregrines nesting in Malta has been shot by illegal hunters, the

female having been shot earlier in the year.
Here's a link to the story:
http://www.birdlifemalta.org/view.aspx?id=361
Should you have any spare cash, I'm sure Birdlife Malta would appreciate a donation:
http://www.birdlifemalta.org/Content/donate/972/
This group fight valiantly against the powerful hunting lobby in Malta. They are making ground slowly but it is an uphill struggle and they do need as much support as they can get. Brave folk those.....
Nick B (DWT)

Generous donors all.....and a butterfly event in Derby

Update 23 July: some 40 people (including some peregrine people) turned up to look for these little butterflies at the weekend. Only two insects were found but I gather everyone had views of them eventually.
Weekend butterfly event: remarkably, the rare and elusive white letter hairstreak butterfly occurs in central Derby close to the cathedral. This weekend butterfly expert Ken Orpe will be at level 10 of the Chapel Street car park from where you can look down on elm trees on which the insects live. He'll be there at 11am on both Saturday and Sunday (21 and 22 July), weather permitting. Do join him, no charge, after you've had a look at the peregrines of course! If you arrive late, you'll find him quite close by for the next hour or two, maybe on the pedestrian bridge over the ring road by St Mary's church if not at or outside the Chapel Street car park. They are super little insects....if you can find them! NB (photo taken last year at Chapel St CP).

Update Tuesday 17th: we've just received an envelope full of lovely letters and drawings from the children of Ash class at Holmesdale Infant School in Dronfield, North Derbyshire. So a quick 'thank you very much' to everyone who sent us a letter - and also to their teacher, Rachel. NB.
Update Sunday 15th July: the male and one of the juvs (020) were above the nest this morning with another bird on Jurys. Christine had reported seeing all four juvs a few days ago. A search of nearby elm trees failed to find any white letter hairstreak butterflies (though a single butterfly was seen a few days ago) but instead there were several red legged (forest) shieldbugs sunning themselves on lower leaves. Three swifts were over Jurys. A sunny start to the day though blustery and not that warm. NB.
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Here, as promised, is a list of everyone who has donated to the peregrine project since the beginning of June, when our anonymous donor offered to match new donations threefold.
So far we've had £1562 come in from many sources/people...a wonderful amount. With the threefold multiplier effect, your donations have been increased by the donor to a wonderfully brilliant new total of £6248!
If you've not donated yet, please do consider doing so, however small, because the anonymous donor has generously agreed to continue to apply the multiplier effect for the time being. 

The more money we have, the more we can do to improve and develop this project. Details of how to donate were on the blog post dated 17th June. Please scroll down to find it.

List of donors. If you have been listed incorrectly (eg too much detail in your name perhaps or the wrong spelling) please get in touch via wildlifeenquiries@derbyshirewt.co.uk and we'll change it immediately. The list now includes most if not all donors who used the Trust's virginmoneygiving website to make their donations. For some of these the full details have only recently come through so thank you letters will be on their way soon.

The names are in no particular order and the amounts you give are not specified:
Lynda Osgerby, Ruth Zantvoort, Mr & Mrs Barker, Roger Sharp, Mrs Whale, Mrs. Pittam, Brenda Prai, Mrs Clifford, Anon, Helen Davies, children at Gorsefield Primary School in Lancashire, Terence Bointon, Sharron Hardman MBE, Phoebe @ Ashbourne, Mrs Burton, Ian Spotswood, Caroline Hawkridge, Jane White, Brian Quiney, Ann Gilbert, Robert Grice, Marilyn Shaw, S Wigglesworth, P Woodward, D Newing, R Neal, M Jeffrey, K Ashton, Els Oostenbrink,Anon, Mrs Tillett, Ann Frogatt, Erica Heptonstall, David Radford, Jo A, Joyce Sawford, Jo in Mickleover, sue@peregrino, L Walker, P Smithurst, Mr & Mrs Shenton, Terry Gifford, RJ, G L Flood, A Pooles, Brenda Beardwood, Anon, H Naylor, Jo Palethorpe, Mrs J Hales, Mrs K Merry, A Vallance, Tom Jones, C. Clare, June Laycock, Lesley W, Kevin Hill, R G Waygood, Sue Wesson, Mr. Smith, Dr J Mead, David Bond and Damion Furlong.

There was a nice comment attached to Els Oosterbrink's donation from Holland:
"Watching the peregrines at Derby Cathedral has become part of our spring so thank you all for making it happen."
Nick B (DWT)
Photo of three juvs courtesy of Ian superbrad Bradley

Welcome to the world!

Double click on the Clustr map on the blog (down the left hand column) and you can see where people all over the planet have been watching our birds in the last month (June). Here's the list of people watching Derby's famous birds from abroad with the number from each one (and its flag!):
United States (US)862 Canada (CA)171 Australia (AU)99 Netherlands (NL)84 Ireland (IE)53 Germany (DE)42 Spain (ES)39 France (FR)38 Saudi Arabia (SA)38 Denmark (DK)37 Taiwan (TW)32 Italy (IT)29 Belgium (BE)27 Austria (AT)26 Japan (JP)21 Europe (EU)21 New Zealand (NZ)16 Isle of Man (IM)16 Hungary (HU)15 Sweden (SE)15 Poland (PL)13 Cyprus (CY)13 Finland (FI)10 Latvia (LV)10 India (IN)9 Switzerland (CH)9 Norway (NO)8 Greece (GR)7 Jersey (JE)6 Iceland (IS)6 Indonesia (ID)6 Brazil (BR)5 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY)5 Russian Federation (RU)5 Mexico (MX)5 United Arab Emirates (AE)4 Pakistan (PK)4 Thailand (TH)4 Serbia (RS)4 Turkey (TR)4 Bulgaria (BG)3 Cook Islands (CK)3 Albania (AL)3 Argentina (AR)3 Peru (PE)3 Singapore (SG)3 Colombia (CO)3 Philippines (PH)3 Korea, Republic of (KR)3 Hong Kong (HK)3 Gibraltar (GI)3 Moldova, Republic of (MD)2 Mongolia (MN)2 Malta (MT)2 Egypt (EG)2 South Africa (ZA)2 Croatia (HR)2 Israel (IL)2 Haiti (HT)1 Macau (MO)1 Qatar (QA)1 Cambodia (KH)1 Trinidad and Tobago (TT)1 Romania (RO)1 Bolivia (BO)1 Seychelles (SC)1 China (CN)1 Kuwait (KW)1 Guernsey (GG)1 Lebanon (LB)1 Slovakia (SK)1 Czech Republic (CZ)1 Iraq (IQ)1 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)1 Portugal (PT)1 Algeria (DZ)1
Wherever you are from - welcome! Why not put a comment on the blog telling us how you found our site and what you think of it?
This summer we have had visitors to our Watch Points from China, France, Sweden, Canada, Australia, Estonia, USA, Israel, Spain, Poland, Russia and the Netherlands to name but a few!
Within the UK, it is rather pleasing to see almost as many folk living in Nottingham watching as there are from Derby. Of course our birds were later fledging than the single chick in Nottingham so that probably explains the recent surge in numbers from our 'rival city'!
Here's the UK list: just as far as places that had 30 hits or more (and remember this is just a snapshot of where people are watching - ie just the June locations and numbers of hits). For the full list go to the Clustr map and double click on it.

Derby	2,222
	Nottingham	2,132
	Leicester	1,312
	London	1,172
	Derbyshire	713
	Sheffield	618
	Manchester	399
	Birmingham	289
	Lincolnshire	249
	Stoke-on-Trent	230
	Nottinghamshire	220
	Leicestershire	211
	St. Helens	194
	Norfolk	163
	York	162
	Leeds	144
	Doncaster	139
	Coventry	134
	Worcestershire	121
	Bristol	118
	Cheshire	115
	Wolverhampton	100
	Lancashire	97
	Gloucestershire	93
	Durham	91
	Warwickshire	89
	Cambridgeshire	84
	Northamptonshire	84
	Suffolk	82
	Somerset	80
	Milton Keynes	77
	Hertford	75
	Hampshire	68
	Surrey	67
	Essex	66
	Liverpool	61
	Bedfordshire	56
	Rotherham	55
	Stockton-on-Tees	54
	Oxfordshire	53
	Walsall	49
	Peterborough	47
	Kingston upon Hull	45
	Plymouth	44
	Bath and North East Somerset	43
	Dudley	42
	Edinburgh	42
	North Yorkshire	41
	Kirklees	40
	Newcastle upon Tyne	38
	Cardiff	38
	Buckinghamshire	35
	Stockport	35
	Kent	34
	Blackburn with Darwen	33
	Barnsley	32
	Glasgow City	31
	East Riding of Yorkshire	30
	Southampton	30
	Staffordshire	30
	North East Lincolnshire	30

Hits to the web cams  and blog have now exceeded 200,000 since January, continued evidence of the  number of people who visit our site.  Do please keep on visiting. We will post news and updates on this blog throughout the summer, autumn and winter....and, from time to time, our adults will appear on the web cams. They stay here all year round as you probably know.

Nick B (DWT)