Sokół wędrowny (Peregrines in Polish) and an update

See an update at the foot of this post

Animated image made and posted by Derby webcam-watchers in Poland

Over the last week we have made big changes to this blog and, judging from your comments, you seem to like them. There's much more to come, of course. The latest addition is an "Introduction" page, accessed from one of the Tabs at the top of the homepage. Next to it is another labelled "Polski". This is the first of three pages which will be produced with information about our Project in one of the main non-English languages spoken in Derby and Derbyshire.

It contains the summary introduction of our project, very roughly translated into Polish. (Roughly, because it was done by "Google Translate" rather than by a real person!) We hope that one or more polish-speakers might come forward to help us translate it properly. (Update: We have now received an offer from a trained Polish translator, and have also received a separate translation into the Czech language, for which we are very grateful.)

That there is strong interest in Derby's peregrines from within Poland can be evidenced from the images and video on this page. All were captured and posted not by us, but by Polish peregrine enthusiasts on their own discussion forum: (Sokół wędrowny - DERBY Anglia - 2012)  Already this year there are nearly 40 individual pages devoted just to Derby, mostly of images captured from our webcameras, and discussions around them. They are well worth a look, and we've shown a few extracts at the bottom of this post.


Video showing two adults and one juvenile on Friday 14th September.

There will soon be lots more ways for people to get more involved in our project. One thing we want to do is to find someone (preferably local) interested in running a twitter account for us. We already have one in English (@DerbyPeregrines) with over 600 followers - see recent Tweets displayed on the right panel of homepage. But we do plan to develop a separate one in Polish  too (@DerbySokoly).

Of course, all this new content is evolving, and could well contain errors at this very early stage. Give us feedback by leaving a comment if you do find things that need correcting or improving.

Extracts of Forum posts from www.peregrinus.pl

22.05.2012r.
karmienie,jedzenia tutaj nie brakuje,posiłki są wydawane w spokoju,

maluszki nie walczą o jedzenia,spokojnie czekają na swoją kolej,karmione są parami ,

by sobie nawzajem nie przeszkadzać w jedzeniu,aż miło popatrzec...

po jedzeniu leżakowanie...

UPDATE 17th October: a short piece about peregrines in Norwich and their prey was on The One Show (BBC 1 TV) last night: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ng5kg/The_One_Show_16_10_2012/
Go to 23 minutes into the programme. Viewable for another six days from today. Derby gets a brief mention.....
Nick B.

Site Under 'Re-Construction'

Do you remember the old days when half the websites you visited seemed to have a moving image of a workman in a hard hat incessantly digging, accompanied by the words "Site Under Construction"?

Well, we've done away with the animated picture, but the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project blog has recently been undergoing a bit of a revamp. Recently we asked blog readers and our partners to comment on a new design layout. We had lots of positive feedback (and approval from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the placing of their logo) and are implementing the changes in readiness for new developments in the months ahead..

It's been fun learning a few new skills and tinkering around with stuff called "html". To give you an  idea of what we've been doing, here's a little video to act as an interlude whilst these changes are put into effect. (Update: most changes now completed as at 12th September)




There are bound to be a few glitches, so please let us know any problems you encounter by leaving a comment (click 'Comments' at the bottom of this post.)

To find out the rationale behind these changes, scroll down to the previous post and read about what we hope it will achieve.

Here are a few tips for PC users to help you get the more out of our new blog:

1) To make the blog fit your PC monitor, use a combination of two keys to increase or decrease size. Hold down the 'CTRL' key whilst pressing either the PLUS or MINUS key. Users with a wheel on their mouse can press Ctrl and rotate the wheel to achieve the same effect.

2) To follow a link, but to have it open in a separate browser window or tab, don't just click the link, right-click it. This should bring you a small drop-down menu on your screen close to the mouse cursor  with the options 'Open Link in New Tab' or 'Open Link in New Window'. Choose and click one to keep the original link open whilst opening a new browser screen, too.

3) Proving you aren't a robot when leaving comments on our blog can be awkward. Those letters and numbers you have to read and type into a box can be easily misinterpreted. Get it wrong, and you risk losing your comments. So we recommend you select and copy your comments before doing the next step. A useful shortcut to selecting text is to click within the comments box, then press the key combination of Ctrl-A, and then press Ctrl-C.  (This selects and copies your comments into your PC's memory) If you get the Captcha code wrong, simply paste the text back in and try again. The shortcut for pasting is Ctrl-V.
Invariably you can't interpret the first selection of letters offered, so click the little circular arrow symbol to refresh the characters until you find a set are able to read.

4) If you want to contact the Peregrine Project Team directly, you can now email us on our dedicated address of peregrines@derbyshirewt.co.uk

5) Mobile phone users should not expect the same blog colour scheme as on a computer. It will appear roughly as shown here.

The Blog! The Blog! And an update

Screenshot of our new blog design. Tell us what you think.

Quick Update at end of this post.
Having recently gained Heritage Lottery Fund support for the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project, one of the jobs we're now doing is redesigning our blog.

We are going to want to accommodate  the new content we'll be developing over the next year or so. We also want to incorporate our new logo which has been designed by our latest partner, Derby Cathedral Quarter.

We've already consulted with a handful of people, but now we want to invite everyone to comment on its appearance before it goes live, and to make constructive suggestions for changes or improvements.

This new design (shown opposite) is intended to give us a number of extra  features, though not all will be in use or available immediately.
These are:

• Better brand identity by prominent use of our new project logo and roundel.
• Brighter, friendlier appearance.
• Better navigation
• Direct and obvious links to key pages by use of permanent Tabs at top of the home page (e.g. to webcams and FAQs) 
• Introductory multi-lingual content (in Polish, Urdu and Punjabi to reflect three of Derby and Derbyshire's most frequently spoken minority languages). Could you help us with this task, or translate content into other languages for us?)
• Clear links to our new Twitter feed: @DerbyPeregrines.
• Clear links to resources for Schools and for children.
• A FAQ Tab for those Frequently Asked Questions.
• External links to other webcam projects and peregrine resources.
• Access to a gallery of work created by local schools, community groups etc.
• Retain and build on links to everyone's photos or screenshots posted on Flickr.
• A single, scannable QR code which recognises the language of a user's mobile phone and takes them to a Wikipedia entry on peregrine falcons in one of 70 languages!
• Allow some of you to become 'Peregrine Champions' and help us blog, tweet and otherwise engage with new communities around Derby with help, support and resources provided by the Project Team. And not necessarily in the English language!

To comment, first visit our demonstration blog here.

The questions we'd like answers to are:

1. What do you like about it?
2. What don't you like about it? 
3. Is it easy to navigate?
4. Does the colour scheme work for you?
5. Does it display OK in your browser or mobile phone? (Simpler template for phone users)
6. Are there important features missing that we should include? 
7. Is the right side of the home page too full, or do you find it helpful?
8. If you speak another language fluently, would you be willing to help create content in that language for us?
9. Is the 'comments' box enough? Is there a need for a built-in discussion forum for users to sign-up to? 

We are simply seeking your thoughts and suggestions on making our blog look and work better. So please ignore the content of the homepage posts themselves -  they're just there to give it a 'bloggy' look.  Feel free to leave a comment below this blog post, or on the demonstration sandbox site itself. Or email the Project Team directly with your thoughts.

Our new email address is peregrines@derbyshirewt.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you.

Nick Moyes
(Peregrines & People Technical Advisor)

Nick Brown
(Lead Volunteer for Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project) 

Our new roundel, designed for us
by Derby Cathedral Quarter

Update 4th September: two of our juvs have been seen recently by Christine and there's news that one of the two juvs from the new nest site in Aylesbury has been sighted 18 miles away near Oxford. Maybe some of our juvs are now well away from Derby too! NB

What's On The Menu?

The table below gives an up-to-date list of prey items taken by Derby Cathedral's peregrine falcons.

All except one are birds, all caught in mid-air.
Can you spot the odd one out?

Blackbird	House martin	Snipe, jack
Blackcap	Jackdaw	Starling
Chaffinch	Jay	Swallow
Corncrake	Knot	Swift
Crow	Kingfisher	Teal
Cuckoo	Lapwing	Tern, arctic
Dove, collared	Magpie	Tern, common
Duck, ruddy	Mallard	Thrush, mistle
Duck, tufted	Moorhen	Thrush, song
Dunlin	Owl, litle	Turnstone
Fieldfare	Pigeon, feral/domestic	Wagtail, pied
Gadwall	Plover, golden	Water-rail
Godwit, bar-tailed	Quail	Waxwing
Godwit, black-tailed	Redwing	Whimbrel
Goldfinch	Redshank	Woodcock
Grebe, little	Robin	Woodpecker, greater spotted
Greenfinch	Skylark	Woodpigeon
Gull, black-headed	Snipe, common	Rat, brown

This list was last updated in 2013 

Kingfisher - one of the newest additions to our prey list in 2011.