Extending our 'Reach'.....

The ringing of the three chicks took place last night (Sunday 24th May) and everything went very smoothly. Big thanks to Martin our abseiler and Ant our licenced ringer and also to Roger who gave us access to the various rooms in the tower and took photos for us.
The chicks now have a uniquely numbered BTO ring on their right legs and an orange/red ring with a short three digit number on their left legs (030, 031 and 032). The falcon was screaming at them as she flew overhead but, once the chicks were put back in the nest, she soon came back and everything returned to normal. Fuller details and photos to follow, hopefully sometime tomorrow. The egg was recovered and will be sent for analysis. It looked as if the chick had formed inside the egg but had been unable to break out from the shell. 
There seem to be some issues with the web cams and these may not be resolved until council IT staff are back at work tomorrow Tuesday. We apologise for this. NB._
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If you are new to this blog and want to see the videos showing our three chicks and read about them, then please scroll down this blog to the previous blog posts.
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Extending our 'reach'......
As part of the grant we have received from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we are employing Ian Layton again this summer both to run the Watch Points for us and to try to extend awareness and appreciation of the peregrines to people who we might not normally reach.
These include people from ethnic minority groups in Derby city and people with disabilities.
As part of this work, Ian organised a session about Derbyshire's wildlife at the Derby Refugee Centre earlier this week, aided by a small group of volunteers. A wide ranging discussion followed.
Ian wrote:
"On Tuesday a group of five of our volunteers and I went along to the Bosnia-Herzegovina Community Centre in Derby to talk to the local Refugee Community.
Hannah who supports the group had done a great job of publicising our visit and we had a good crowd of 25 people from many parts of the world including Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Albania, Libya, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Talks like this are always interesting as we never quite know what to expect – will the group be confident enough in English to chat with us? – will they have had any schooling before finding themselves in the UK? – what are their cultural views on wildlife let alone conservation? Well this group was a peach! There were at least two surgeons in the group – and perhaps most interestingly a young Eritrean man with a background in fishery stock conservation in the Red Sea – and enough folks were confident enough to chat with us and ask a whole range of questions.

Ian gives his presentation. Photo Joyce Sawford

We began by introducing people to the idea that Derbyshire is more than simply the city of Derby – and explained that there are many and varied landscapes and habitats across the county. We then looked at the different species to be seen – both the commonplace and the beautiful, rare and precious. The Cathedral peregrines certainly featured in the presentation!
Folks seemed to really warm to our badgers, to be highly amused that our most venomous snake tends to kill one person every century, and loved the critically endangered hazel dormouse that has been reintroduced to a secret site in the county.
We then went on to explain the threats our wildlife face from people – through persecution, changes in farming and through the introduction of invasive species – before explaining what Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project and others do help wildlife overcome these dangers – and perhaps most crucially – explained how the Refugee Community could really help us in our work.
It is really heart-warming that the refugee group are now piloting the Derby Wildlife Spotters Sheet that we plan to use at this year's Watch Points in an effort to get people to follow up the “wow factor” of the peregrines into real action to support our wildlife – AND – that we have seven people coming along to the  events at Sinfin and Peartree Libraries next week to help us better engage with the language and culture of Derby’s ethnic minority communities. A huge thanks to – Yahya, Malik, Michele, Abthalek, Saeed, Omar and Jourda – and we look forward to working alongside you all next week! – and of course an equally huge thanks to the five Project volunteers (Sue, Joe, Hilary, Paul and Joyce) who came along on the day and who are putting in the extra efforts needed to include the Refugee Community in our Project".

The seven volunteers assemble. Photo Joyce Sawford