Our community work continues.....

One of the tasks we set ourselves when we submitted for a lottery grant was to try to engage the project with the minority communities in Derby especially those for whom English was not their first language.
Ian Layton, our Engagement Officer, paid for by the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, has been working hard again this year to do just that.
Last year he organised visits to the cathedral by Ukranian, West Indian and other communities and made good contact with the Polish community in Derby but people from the Indian sub-continent proved harder to reach.
While we have had quite a few Pakistani and Indian families come to the Watch Points over the years, we really needed to make more efforts to engage with Punjabi and Urdu speakers in greater numbers.
So Ian organised a session at a library in Derby at which some falconer's birds would hopefully be a lure to get local people to come in and engage with us.
It worked a treat!
For over three hours yesterday, assisted by several of our excellent volunteers, we had a constant stream of people from many parts of the globe come in to see the birds and watch the web cams from the cathedral which were showing on a computer screen nearby.

A patient eagle owl allows a close encounter

We had people originating from Pakistan, India, Slovenia, Eritrea, Sudan, Poland and Slovakia to name but a few - and they all thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
The children were delighted to have their mums and dads take photos of them either with a bird on their gloved hand or, as above, gentry stroking the very obliging male eagle owl!

The falconers from Nottinghamshire brought a harris hawk, a buzzard, an escaped but very tame kestrel which was found stunned by a window, an eagle owl and a couple of barn owls.
We told everyone how to access the peregrine web cams and the blog and we invited them to come to one of our Saturday Watch Points.

IF YOU WERE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE, DO PLEASE COME ALONG TODAY OR TO ONE ON ANY OF THE NEXT FOUR SATURDAYS - ANYTIME BETWEEN 10.30 AND 1.30  - AND SEE OUR NESTING WILD PEREGRINES! IT IS FREE AND YOU'LL BE WARMLY WELCOMED BY OUR VOLUNTEERS.

One young man from Eritrea, who had to flee from his country six months ago, was entranced by the birds and stayed for a long time. He was a charming guy and we hope to see him at a Watch Point soon.

Etritrean lad with a harris hawk

Thanks especially to the falconers Philip and Jacob, to Ian and Steve who gently hauled people into the library from the street outside, to the librarians (fortunately the floor was easily cleaned - the birds were not house trained!), to our volunteers, to the three Rolls Royce graduates who came and helped. Finally, thanks to everyone who came to meet us and the birds.

If anyone wishes to contact us them please email us at peregrines@derbyshirewt.co.uk

The Project Team

Ps. The Watch Points are held on Cathedral Green on Full Street behind the cathedral itself.
You can't miss us! There's a map on this blog's homepage if you scroll down a bit and look on the right hand side.

Pps. To read about the recent ringing of the chicks, please scroll down this blog!