The platform sits at the bottom left of the louvred 'window' which, incidentally is just wood and has no glass in it.The two original 'nest cams' are sited on posts attached either side of the Nest Platform. A more recent camera with the wide-angle lens is fixed to the back of the platform, and looks out over the nest towards Cathedral Green below (where the Watch Points are held) and beyond to the River Derwent.
Tower Cam (sometimes known as 'pud cam' because it looks like a Christmas pudding) sits in the lead gutter to the left of the three carved 'Grotesques' which appear on the photo as dark blobs.
It is on these grotesques that the three fledglings often sit.
Here's the 'peregrine's eye-view' from the top of the tower looking over Cathedral Green and out towards the River Derwent:
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| View looking East taking in the winter showing Cathedral Green and the River Derwent |
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| Photo looking down on the platform taken on chick ringing day |
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| Photo by John Salloway |
Over 150 people came through the Watch Point. They saw all three juveniles plus both the adults, though not all together (only one adult at a time).
At one moment, the juv males saw a pigeon and set off from the top of the tower chasing it. He didn't achieve a meal but clearly he's well up on his learning curve.
Here's a photo from a previous year (2012) showing three juvenile birds in the air, one of them carrying prey passed to it by an adult and the other two screaming that they would rather like to have meal that for themselves!:
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| Photo by Ian Bradley |
Last year, a less than competent juvenile failed to catch a prey item dropped for it in mid-air by the female. The prey dropped perilously close to people sitting outside a local pub (The Dolphin) drinking beer and eating their lunch! Fortunately it just missed landing in someone's pint pot!
Nick B (DWT)
Ps. A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to the project recently.
If you've enjoyed the web cams and blog but haven't donated yet - please scroll down to the previous post to read about how to donate. It is VERY simple and easy and quick!
11th July Watch Point Report by Helen Naylor:
Another very successful watch point today, with plenty to show the steady stream of visitors that arrived throughout the morning. All three juvenile birds were seen on the tower, looking very fit and healthy and enjoying the sunshine. They made several flights over the watch point and around the cathedral. It was great to see them flying so confidently. The adult male was around for much of the time, even perching on the nearby roof of the Silk Mill Museum giving us superb close up views. The young birds were very vocal and could be heard calling to him on numerous occasions, hoping for some food! The juvenile wood pigeon that was still in its nest last week below the peregrine platform appears to have gone, so hopefully it managed to fledge successfully! Another big thank you for all the kind donations that we received today.
If you've enjoyed the web cams and blog but haven't donated yet - please scroll down to the previous post to read about how to donate. It is VERY simple and easy and quick!
11th July Watch Point Report by Helen Naylor:
Another very successful watch point today, with plenty to show the steady stream of visitors that arrived throughout the morning. All three juvenile birds were seen on the tower, looking very fit and healthy and enjoying the sunshine. They made several flights over the watch point and around the cathedral. It was great to see them flying so confidently. The adult male was around for much of the time, even perching on the nearby roof of the Silk Mill Museum giving us superb close up views. The young birds were very vocal and could be heard calling to him on numerous occasions, hoping for some food! The juvenile wood pigeon that was still in its nest last week below the peregrine platform appears to have gone, so hopefully it managed to fledge successfully! Another big thank you for all the kind donations that we received today.
39 comments:
Hi Heather
We have one more Watchpoint of the season in Derby this Saturday, 11th July. The team set all the kit up on Cathedral Green at 9:30 for a 10:00 start. We stay until at least 1pm (unless it's dreadful weather) Do come along and say hello, you'll be most welcome. We're a friendly team and love to share the wonderful peregrines with everyone. We have several telescopes set up that are there for anyone to take a look through. My digi-scope kit is a really simple kit I bought from a shop. I feel really embarrassed that I couldn't figure out how to use it last week. It'll be coming up again with me so you can watch me potentially make a fool of myself again! Digi-scoping is simply a way of taking a photograph through the eyepiece of the telescope. Many people manage to do this even with their mobile phones these days, but you need to have a really steady hand - with the magnifications in use, any movement will be magnified too. The kit should theoretically guard against this.
So, hope to see you on Saturday. That's an open invitation to Heather and anyone else, we love to have visitors. We're very friendly, as I said, and it's free to attend. So, what's not to love about that! :)
Thanks to Nick for the update on where everything is & the pictures are always great. Lone female juvie up top right now and calling out and preening.
A second juvie has come in with prey and while trying to defeather it or eat the first one went over and they were fighting over it. The second one flew off without his prey and now is back. But the other one is hanging on to it. It still has its feathers. But some are coming off now. Maybe it was an adult that came in and is taking the feathers off. Hard to see as one is covering everything with its back to the camera.
One of the juvies is on top of the camera as I see its tail and then nothing for a bit. I hope its not caught on something as its been up there for awhile.
The perrys are being very vocal this morning
Juvie on tower devouring prey which seemed to be taken from its sibling, hard to tell but there was close up of brown feathers a few times close to camera. Certainly acted very aggressively just before taking it with Mr P? on scrape looking up keeping eye on proceedings. Have noticed there's usually 2 juvies together on tower overnight.
Thank you Sue for your kind invite to watchpoint today but have had labyrinthitis for seven weeks so looking up through telescope would likely see me making a fool of myself by falling flat on my face! Very annoying as have wanted to attend at least one of the watchpoints this year. Glad you've figured out how to work your digi-scope, good luck with it today - I looked it up and seems a very useful piece of equipment but can see how you might have had problems figuring it out!
Is anyone else having problems with camera 3 as I'm unable to get audio (on iPad), also freezes sometimes?
Ive just tuned in is the perry alright its just lying there its moving its head but no movement from its body i hope its just resting
Ok panic over its moving now must have been just resting phew thankgod for that
Another very successful watch point today, with plenty to show the steady stream of visitors that arrived throughout the morning. All three juvenile birds were seen on the tower, looking very fit and healthy and enjoying the sunshine. They made several flights over the watch point and around the cathedral. It was great to see them flying so confidently. The adult male was around for much of the time, even perching on the nearby roof of the Silk Mill Museum giving us superb close up views. The young birds were very vocal and could be heard calling to him on numerous occasions, hoping for some food! The juvenile wood pigeon that was still in its nest last week below the peregrine platform appears to have gone, so hopefully it managed to fledge successfully! A big thank you for all the kind donations that we received today.
One Juvie up top with prey, still has feathers on it. Dad sitting on the edge of the scrape.
Either the other female juvie came in or mom because the feathers are now flying. She is just ripping them out fast so I think its the falcon.
It is quite funny right now. I was wrong, it us just the juvies. The females. The second one came back and got behind the one with the prey. So she fanned out her tail and opened her wings so the other one couldn't get to the prey. She tried to get past her but the other one kept her wings open. Finally the one without took off and came in from the opposite end and tries to take the prey. But the one with the prey has turned around again so she can't get it. She pulled so hard at the prey just now that she slid off and went flying away so the second one followed. They really are quite entertaining.
Two juveniles on the tower and an adult - male I think - on the scrape ledge.
Looks like 2 large juvies asleep up top, side by side, backs to the rain.
Monday morning and it's a dreary day in Derby. The week's forecast doesn't look too encouraging either but the young birds have to deal with all kinds of weather as they learn to fend for themselves over the coming weeks and months.
As the weeks pass, so the chances of them flying into a building and injuring themselves, as has happened in the past, diminish.
However, learning to catch prey for themselves safely and frequently are skills these youngsters are still acquiring. It's a sharp learning curve for them.
Nick B (DWT)
Three juvies on tower, one came towards camera then suddenly appeared with prey which is being plucked - so at least one of them has mastered that art. Mr. P resting on scrape. Usually only two on tower so not sure if one huddled in corner is in fact a parent, but seems unlikely.
Looks like th little guy found some prey but is smart. He went to the scrape to eat it. One bird up top but can't tell if it is mom or one of the girls. One just flew away. I think it was the one that had been eating prey. I have seen where one of the juvies will pluck a bit, then eat and then pluck some more. They are getting good at what they need to know to survive. But they certainly don't like to share. It is like, if you are hungry, go get your ow!
3 perrys on tower are they the juveniles??? And one underneath is that mum or dad??? And one of the obes on the tower is tucking into something
Hi Anita, can only see one juvie on tower tonight but think, as I mentioned earlier, there were three on tower and parent on scrape. Best way to distinguish difference is that juvies have vertical brownish stripes on their front and under their wings whereas the parents have darker horizontal ones. From the back the male's feathers have a uniform slate grey whereas the female's is more mottled.
The male is approx.70% the size of the female which enables her to cover the eggs and chicks more adequately whilst MrP is off providing for the family. It's during this time when both parents are in the scrape that you can see how much smaller he is. Other times it can be quite difficult to tell them apart. One of the two females is certainly on the large side and always seemed to be the first in line when it was feeding time and the little male hardly got a look in. But he got as feisty as his sisters and the parents always ensured he got his fair share. Don't know where he goes to at night as it's usually the two sisters on the tower.
Thanks Heather, I will try to remember this info on the stripes. It is so true that one of the females is much larger than the other. Maybe the male sleeps over on Jury's with mom and dad. He seemed to like to sit with mom when she was on the edge he most often sat behind her.
Hi Abby - Mummy's Boy!! Perhaps parents are secretly giving him the occasional extra snack as his sisters are so greedy;)
Thanks for the info guys thats very interesting as i always thought the male would be the bigger one but now i know why the female is bigger yes ive noticed that one of the juvies is feisty when it comes to food.
One perry on tower being very vocal and one of the adults sat on one of those ledges below the platform
One juvie up top feasting. You can tell it is a juvie as she takes off some feathers then eats then more feather go and then she eats. Mrs P takes all the feathers off and then eats. Another one sits on the corner watching.
That little pereguine is on the scape when I log off at night and when I log on in a morning.....is he stuffed ?
I believe that is the tiercel and it is one of his favourite spots. He used to sleep up top but the 2 female juvies have taken over the spot where he used to sit at night.
Cam 3 is all clouded over and has been for hours. Anyone know why?
I noticed the tower shot on Cams 2 & 3 was cloudy too last night, looked as if it was very foggy or the two juvies had set fire to their new "squatters" quarters but back to normal this morning. Feel sorry for Mr P ousted from his favourite overnight spot by his two larger daughters, that's the thanks you get for all your hard work raising them! See they're on the tower again (assume it's the two females but hard to get proper perspective when one is behind the other).
Lots of action this morning?....
It looked like the small boy had a blackbird to himself but dropped it. He then ran over to one of the parents who was eating and started crying like a baby and was then fed 'beak to beak' which I thought they'd stopped doing? Now the big girl is sitting there right in front blocking any kind of view, but we don't mind....
Got a perry going to sleep right in front of cam 3 aaawwwww
2 juvies on main tower settling in for the night and Mr P consigned, yet again, to the scrape.
I am still getting poor reception on cam 3. Very cloudy. Maybe it will clear soon. Just one sitting in front of the camera right now. No one in the scrape.
Dont know what perry got this morning but its having a right old feast on it.
Dad is on the edge of the scrape while 2 juvies up top. One is feasting. I think it is the 2 girls up top. I haven't seen the falcon for awhile.
Now Dad is on the other side of the scrape rearranging the stones. I think the little guy is up top with one of the girls.
Really enjoyed the watch point today..met all sorts of people who were fascinated with our family of five.....
The top right hand picture in cam 3 shot goes all foggy on me every evening after dark. Like right now. I can see Mr P on the edge of the scrape but above him is cloudy. Only at night for the past few days.
Abby Lynn I noticed that too, last night and tonight. Can only think maybe a bit of moisture or something on the lens. Its not cold here tonight, but it is near the river so could be.
Thank you, I'm glad I'm not the only one. You start to wonder if something is wrong with your reception. I love taking a peek at what's going on every so often.
I see "the fog" has descended on the tower again! I wondered if it was a fault with night vision part of camera but not sure if this is the case. At least it's ok during the day and the family continue to provide us with an insight into their world. Still not sure if its another female we see on the tower with the 'larger' female or the little male - I've never seen all 3 juvies there together. Mr P off watch tonight.
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