WatchPoints and Chick-Ringing 2014

The 2014 Watch Points start this Saturday, 24th May.
This year Ian Layton and his band of keen volunteers are also running quite a number of Watchpoints during the weekday for booked parties.
The following dates have so far been scheduled. Others may be added later. Check the WatchPoint Tab at the top of our homepage for changes to these details.

SAT MAY 24th      PUBLIC WATCH

SAT MAY 31^st  PUBLIC WATCH POINT

           

SAT JUNE 7^th   PUBLIC WATCH POINT 

                           (Incl visit from Bosnian YP) 

SAT JUNE 14th  PUBLIC WATCH POINT

SAT JUNE 21st  PUBLIC WATCH POINT

SAT JUNE 28^th PUBLIC WATCH POINT 

SAT JULY 5^th   PUBLIC WATCH POINT

All Watchpoints are free and start around 10.30am on Derby's Cathedral Green, and usually run until about 1pm or later if there's lots of activity. They may not run  if the weather is foul.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust volunteers with telescopes will be on hand to talk to anyone wanting to see or learn more about the city's amazing peregrines.

The Green is the pleasant, grassy area at the rear of Derby Cathedral which gives excellent views of the peregrine nest platform. See Map

Watch Points are entirely free, though if you enjoy your time with us (and viewing the birds online), a donation is always welcome! The Lottery grant that we have helps us pay for the project but we are still required to raise over £1000 each year ourselves as match funding.

Ringing the Chicks
The webcams may look a little bit odd for a while tomorrow evening as we are scheduled to ring the three surviving peregrine chicks. This involves an abseil from the top of the tower down to the nest platform. The chicks will then be carefully placed into a bag and gently lowered to Anthony, waiting on the nave roof below. Ant is a licenced ringer who has put coloured rings on the legs of all our chicks (except for one year) since they first nested here back in 2006. As always, we inform the police in advance, lest a keen webcam watcher somewhere thinks they should report suspicious activity at the nest.
If all goes well, the chicks should be back in the nest within twenty minutes or so. It's a real privilege to be able to pick up the young birds and lower them down for ringing, and then return them unharmed to their nest again. As always we're pleased to welcome a few invited guests in to watch the ringing first hand. This year, amongst others, we welcome Mark on behalf of SERCO who generously provide the real technical support of ensuring our webcams are configured correctly to the internet, and Simon who will be off-duty, but is one of Derbyshire Constabulary's Wildlife Liaison Officers with a keen interest in Derby's amazing peregrines.