Saturday 2 February 2013

In a bit of a scrape

It's that time of year again. Behind the scenes we're busy sorting out new cameras, getting the new Facebook page up and running, and preparing for a nest ledge maintenance session. Ian Layton, our new Engagement Officer,  is starting to find his feet, and is getting ready to run a stand with Nick Brown at Derby University's Opal conference for teachers in a week's time.

Behind the scenes, too, our pair of peregrine falcons are readying themselves for the forthcoming breeding season. Days are lengthening now, and they are spending more and more time on or around the nest platform. The video below shows a typical bit of calling and nest-scraping activity that we captured a couple of weeks ago but were unable to bring you at the time.

We hope you enjoy the sound of Derby's bells, too, played by the automated carillon inside the tower.



With road works causing delays on Derby's inner ring road, now could be a good chance if you're stuck in traffic to look up towards the tall Jurys Inn building on the north side of Derby. It's not far from the Cathedral tower and gives our peregrines a perfect position to watch over their nest site when they're not actually on it. They love the huge, blue illuminated letters at the top of the building - it's probably slightly warm, too.


6 comments:

Caroline said...

Just enjoyed the nest-scraping video - great to see both birds on it :) Then I checked out the live webcams and found the ?male (not sure that I've got my eye in on the different sizes yet) sitting on the nest watching Derby get up on a chilly Sunday morning. A joy to see him live online again.

Good luck with all your preparations for the teachers' conference.

Caroline

AnnieF. said...

Super video, that activity never fails to lift my spirits.
A belated welcome To Ian, I'm sure you'll soon feel at home with all of us peregrine fans around the world.

Caroline said...

I've been working today, alas, but decided to leave the Derby peregrine window open on my screen for company while I was typing. The ?male sat there preening while I worked but about 5 mins ago, at 12.47ish, there was much chirruping and the other one arrived. Great to HEAR them - thanks to the wonderful new streaming! Rather funny too as my cat wondered what on earth was going on in the room ;)

Caroline

PS. I don't have Windows 8 so can't answer your question, Ian.

AnnieF. said...

I'll be amazed if this post appears. I've had several tries in the past week or so but no luck. My posts have been uncontroversial - a welcome to Ian, a sighting or two of peregrines in the scrape - but no, they disappear even though I get the usual message for a successful post. Anyway, here goes.

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

@ AnnieF I'm terribly sorry that three of your past comments remained unmoderated until now. Thanks for your welcome remarks to Ian, too.
Whilst we normally all get automated emails telling us a new comment has been submitted, for some reason we missed seeing yours. So maybe it was a technical problem with Blogger for telling you your post had been successful whilst we remained blissfully ignorant of your contributions. Sorry about this.
Please continue commenting, and remember you can always email us. - see the About Us tab at the top of the page.
Nick M

AnnieF. said...

@Project Member Nick M.

Thank you! I was getting a bit anxious, but now you've explained what may have happened my relief is as that of Ladysmith (well, almost ..)!
I didn't realise I coud email you, so thanks for the tip. One satisfied customer here, and getting excited about the new camera too. It gets better and better!