Thursday 14 March 2013

Watch the birdy!

A stunning new web camera has just gone live, and you can watch it here. Set low down on the wooden nest platform on the side of Derby's Cathedral, it gives a superb wide-angle view right out across the peregrine falcons' scrape, and across over the eastern skyline of Derby city. The pictures  (plus a two-minute video) below show the results we can expect from it during this coming breeding season.

14 March 201328 Feb 2013








The camera was installed last month during our annual maintenance abseil. Only yesterday were settings changed on Derby City Council's networks to allow the camera to 'see out ' through their security firewall to send us these images.  For the moment we are using one of our existing webcam streams, which only has pictures changing every few seconds. But later we intend to stream the camera live with its own internal microphone, which you can clearly hear on the video clip.

You can watch other clips from this camera on our YouTube channel here.

The camera - an Axis P3364 - was purchased with Heritage Lottery Funding as part of our People and Peregrines Project. Its acquisition was also sponsored by Network Webcams to whom we are grateful.

30 comments:

Helen said...

Fairly sure mating just took place on the stonework below the nest platform!

Jane (Belper) said...

That is one fantastic view! Thank you everyone for bringing us this new camera. You've really put a smile on my face - despite the grim weather. Can't wait for the first egg. Talk about "up close and personal"!!

Kate said...

Thank you for all the hard work behind the scenes.Fantastic cam.
Not wanting and not intending to criticise in any way.
Am i correct that this is STREAM1
and STREAM 2 is same as STREAM 3 ?
or will Stream 3 be reverting back to close up??
Apppreciate the Blog and updates.

Kate

christine said...

Hi Nick nice webcam on nestplatform! Are all the webcams going 2 be livestreaming because i Cant get livestreaming on my phone! Its not supported it means i Will Have 2 buy a new phone! From Christine

AnnieF. said...

A marvellous view, thank you all so much. I enjoyed the video, & the new camera certainly doesn't worry the peregrines. In fact there's one perching on the nestbox ledge right now.

Caroline said...

Wow, what a view of the falcon and over Derby - thank you! You can see the detail on her feathers. Then, when she comes to peer at the camera, yon can see the yellow ring around her eye and appreciate how big her eye is in relation to her head, although it is nothing compared with that hefty beak. Well done again to the team who did the long hard work of writing the grant-winning proposal! Lucky us.

Nikki said...

All webcams look great using the Puffin browser app on ipad/iphone.I believe it's also available for android devices.

christine said...

Hi nicki can u dwnload the puffin browser app! What do i need 2 do 2 get it? Gt a HTC wildfire !

Nikki said...

Hi Christine, if you can download apps for your phone at Google Play this link might help http://www.puffinbrowser.com
There's a free version you can try out first.

from christine said...

Hi nikki just wanted 2 thank-you for telling me about the puffin app i Have dwnloaded it and nw i can get the livestreaming! Its great! Im a big fan of the peregrines and Have bn watching them since they have bn around! Thanx again!

mo cole said...

Hi Nick...... just to let you know the Puffin app works a treat on the ipad.... thanks alot.... Mo xxx

Mo Cole said...

Hi... Has the live video 3 froze ?... Mo x

from christine said...

Yes it has froze! I looked at it earlier and it had frozen up! From Christine

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

We have a temporary freeze-up on Stream 3, which we've been trying to set up today to allow us to stream fully live video with sound from any of our four cameras. We hope to have this rectified tomorrow.

Meanwhile our main Stream 1 still shows live pictures from our new camera.

Thank you for your positive comments about the new camera. At the moment we will use Stream 1 for this; Stream 2 for our 'quad view' of the other three analogue cameras, plus Stream 3 for live video and sound from any of the cameras we feel likely to give the best view at the time.

Helen was correct on 14th March in observing mating. I hope to upload a video clip shortly.

Nick M.

Phoebe said...

Just to say the new 'egg-cam' is brilliant. I can't wait for the season to start. I have been watching regularly but also been very busy and unable to comment. Good news on the sight of mating.

My guess for the first egg is Sunday 31st March - Easter Day, what better time!

Phoebe said...

Falcon is in the scrape looking very serious!

cheb said...

Wow! What a super new webcam. Congrats to all involved. Been watching since 07.cherrill

Phoebe said...

I think, but not sure, that the tiercel is doing some scraping right now.

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

A number of viewers are reporting problems accessing Derby Council's webpages. They are seeing warning messages relating to their security certificate. This is nothing to do with us, but a problem they are currently investigating.

There is no risk involved in accessing our webcam pages on Derby City Council's website.

Anonymous said...

A peregrine at Nottingham Trent Uni seems to be sitting. Has anyone seen an egg?

Phoebe said...

Breakfast for one peregrine on the tower.

I saw Notts bird on the cam last night and there was a sitting bird. Was too dark to see.

Anonymous said...

Hi anonymous re Nottingham Trent project : It certainly looks as if you're right about it looking like their bird is incubating but this can't be confirmed from the blog as there's nothing at all there. You have to subscribe to five star derby to get excellent commentary and comment! :)
I just hope the pattern of 2012 will not repeat for Notts. Those birds were "early" and caught the terrible weather with a devastaing consequence.

Phoebe said...

according to NTU's blog an egg was spotted around 9pm last night. That is when I was watching and I could see her standing in the nest and fidgeting.

Phoebe said...

Sue - I agree, that went through my thoughts too, let's just hope it will be a good year for Notts.

Phoebe said...

Notts bird has just come off the scrape - there is no egg visible...

Anonymous said...

11:20am and I've just looked at Notts. Bird not there and I don't see any eggs. It does appear to be raining in Nottingham, which was why the thought about last year went through my mind earlier. Of course, Notts was an extreme example of the trouble wreaked by last year's weather but it was actually a cruel year for many birds, Derby actually did fantastically well. I hope for the sake of all our wildlife that 2013 is not a repeat of the extremes of 2012.

Michael. said...

Hi.
@ Nick.
Nice to see another web cam But how are you going to keep it clean with there projectile pooing ?.

Re.
"A number of viewers are reporting problems accessing Derby Council's webpages. They are seeing warning messages relating to their security certificate. This is nothing to do with us, but a problem they are currently investigating.

There is no risk involved in accessing our webcam pages on Derby City Council's website"

All they have to do is Accept the certificate on there web browser and it should then be ok.

AnnieF. said...

Re NTU, I've looked closely at the empty nestbox but I can't see any sign of an egg.

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

A good question, there, from Michael about how we are going to cope with procetile pooing and keeping the new camera lens clean. . .
It was a calculated risk on my part. I built a life-size mockup of the nest platform in my living room and looked at old photos of how high up the 'poo' went into the corner. I then judged the lowest distance I could reasonably get away with, and have also fitted the camera on a moveable base plate. So, should we experience one of those "one in a hundred year" defecation events, we will be able to say how totally surprised we all were, then sneakily raise the camera a bit more on the next maintenance abseil. But the chick will still have to be pretty big before they can poo that high into ther corner, so if the lens does get creamed, we'll just have to live with it until they've fledged.
My belief is that the gamble is worth it for a great view.
Time, and faeces, will tell!

Out of interest, Derby Council's website security certificate waas sorted out this morning. We were the first to report the problem, and they were certainly appreciative of the evening 'tweet' we sent them. The problem was resolved at 9.20am today.

Nick.

AnnieF. said...

I've now seen the NTU egg, thank goodness ( thought I might need new specs ...) and about an hour ago, witnessed a very noisy changeover there, with the female calling and clearly telling the male it was about time he took his turn. To be fair, he was keen to take his turn, no shirking there!