Saturday 20 April 2013

Incubation - and a show of eggs (and an update)

Now that incubation is in full swing, our female peregrine falcon rarely reveals her eggs, unless changing position, or being relieved by her mate so she can go and feed elsewhere.

We've set up some screen capture software (which anyone can do at home, too, if they wish.)
This captures images every few seconds, allowing us to flip back through a day's activity and find interesting pictures to share. Here are a few good moments from earlier today.

Although this blog will remain our main means of sharing information and news about derby's amazing peregrines, we do also post additional images and updates to our Twitter feed as well as to our new Facebook account from time to time. So maybe see some of you there, too?

In the next few days we will be announcing another new development we have been working on. So wherever you follow us from - watch this space!





For information on how to save screenshots and post them to our Flickr Group, follow this link.

UPDATE
A new page of links to UK web cams that are managed (at least in part) by Wildlife Trusts can be found at http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/webcams .
Derby and Nottingham peregrines feature as do ospreys at Rutland Water, Loch of the Lowes and Montgomeryshire. Well worth a look while we await hatching.....which is still over a fortnight away!

13 comments:

Mary T said...

Great to see the photos of the eggs. It"s all getting exciting now. Can"t wait to hear the news that will be announced soon. Hope to see you all again soon at the Watchpoints. Kind regards. Mary T (Belper)

Caroline said...

Good morning! More great questions and answers, I see, as well as the fun of learning some screen grab IT. I remember these automatic screen grabs being discussed last year and now the skills are being shared with everyone. Amazing what peregrine-watching can teach you! Look forward to further announcements which the project team have been incubating. Re Facebook, although I don't use it that often, I have been trying to share the Derby Peregrine pictures there to help spread the word.

Roger said...

Hotel name-change? No.

Regular visitors to the Cathedral car park, and sharp-eyed peregrine web-cam viewers, may have noticed that the "J" of Jurys Inn has been missing for a few days.

I've just spoken to the nice ladies at reception and they told me that someone had noticed it was loose (it was quite windy in Derby last week) so it was taken down as a precaution. It is due to be put back later this week.

They don't think the peregrines using it as a resting place contributed in any way to its becoming loose.

Anonymous said...

I'm also looking forward to the breaking news, and to Derby hatchings which will hopefully lead to Watchpoints. I visited the Norwich project at the weekend and they're "ahead" of Derby and expect hatching to start sometime this week. Am I right in thinking that Charing Cross hatching started yesterday? I still have no predictions about what might happen at my own Aylesbury project with the two eggs separated by twelve days situation. I shouldn't be skiving looking at this webcam, I should be going shopping but hey, what the heck!

slumpy said...

There's a pigeon on the top camera and the falcon is in front of the cam, only a few feet away

slumpy said...

That came out a bit wrong. Should have said the pigeon was in front of the gutter and the the falcon was just in front of the cam

Nick B (DWT) said...

The pigeon Slumpy is (I think) a wild stock dove. I noticed a pair (at least) on the tower yesterday morning when I stopped to look up. Stock doves are smaller than wood pigeons (which also frequent the tower) but the same size as feral pigeons. the latter come in all sorts of plumages but they have large black marks on their closed wings, not small ones like the stock doves.
Both stock doves and wood pigeons breed on the tower - paying no obvious attention to the proximity of the falcons. Whether they are plain 'ignorant' of the falcons presence or so wise that they know the peregrines won't attack them so close to the stonework, I don't know!
Nick B (DWT)

philip said...

Just photographed an adult plumage peregrine plucking prey in the middle of a field of sheep about four miles south of Chesterfield at about 15:30.
today - 22/04/13 Having enlarged the photos, fairly sure of red/orange or pink ring on left leg. Any suggestions ?

Anonymous said...

Well done Philip to spot that! Apparently (and to Derby's dismay) several projects use that colour to ring their peregrines. I have to put my hand up and say that's what we use at Aylesbury. However, our Aylesbury ones have BIG black lettering too - LA and LB. Does Derby have this type of further identification? I would have thought though that 4 miles away has to be a common sense assumption that it's more likely than not a Derby bird?

Nick B (DWT) said...

Philip: can you email us on peregrines@derbyshirewt.co.uk and attach a photo of this bird?
4 miles from Chesterfield is roughly 25 miles from Derby give or take. We know that juveniles can range up to 100 miles from their natal area so this bird might - or might not - be one of ours. Sue: ours have black numbers on them (eg 012) - not letters - but the colours should be different of course - we need to speak to the national organisers.
Nick B (DWT)
Ps Would be great if this was one of our juvs from a previous year.

Caroline said...

Wow, one clocks on for a quick check and discovers that not only has Jury's lost one of its peregrine perches for a day or two but Philip has spotted a peregrine nr Chesterfield! Tx for sharing. Can't wait to hear whether it can be identified. Going to be fascinating to see when your 12-days-apart eggs hatch, Sue. Re other projects; I was talking to someone whose office overlooks St George's where the nest is in Sheffield. Lucky person, though I would never get any work done if that was me!

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, silly me, of course now you remind me Nick, I know you have a number sequence for Derby rings. And I'm also getting over excited and thinking the bird was 4 miles from Derby, not Chesterfield. Either way though, it's fantastic to get a sighting of a ringed bird, it's the whole point of ringing. I agree with you Nick that we need some national organising on urban peregrine ringing schemes. If anyone wants to see what the Aylesbury ones look like, there's an image on our homepage at http://biodiversity.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/ which looks very like Derby's to me. Who would be good ring co-ordinators? (You would have thought the BTO as they do the licensing in the first place!) Hi Caroline, I know what you mean about St George's - I nearly signed up to a post grad course at the uni 99.9% because of this. I've had to reluctantly plump for London instead. Also, think of our Bucks County Council workers, the birds are on their workplace, they are so lucky.

Anonymous said...

looking forward to seeing the eggs hatch and hopefully all four will survive, so far all three in Nottingham have hatched and are feeding well.