Cathy no more and a TV update

Update: there has been some splendid footage of the peregrines nesting on Salisbury Cathedral on BBC2's Springwatch, starting with the programme on Monday and with more footage today (Wednesday). Well worth checking out using iplayer here .
Five eggs were laid over a 15 day period (that in itself is strange - ours lay their four eggs every other day) and now only one egg has hatched!).
(There was also a very clear mention of the fact that birds of prey (in this case golden eagles) have been 'disappearing' on managed driven grouse moors in Scotland.....though Chris Packham had to stay well clear of that item, understandably given the flak he's received for being 'political' and using his BBC presenter role to advance his private views (against the illegal killing of raptors on grouse moors especially).
In 2009, two of the four chicks reared and fledged that summer soon came to grief.
One was found freshly dead on top of a block of flats near the cathedral a matter of days after she fledged. Evidently she had flown into a smoked glass screen which surrounded the top of the flat roof of this building, breaking her neck and dying instantly.
We put the corpse in a deep freezer at Derby Museum (where Nick M worked at the time) and rather than bin it, decided to get it set up by a taxidermist when we could find the necessary cash (£400).
This specimen has proved very useful for showing children especially what a juvenile peregrine looks like, how big it is and what it's various features (e.g. its talons, cere, eye ring, feather details etc) look like.

The newly mounted female with Chris Orgill our
taxidermist. Note the metal BTO ring on its right leg and the orange
coloured ring on its left leg signifying the bird is from Derby cathedral.

This bird's sister also flew into a building somewhere, was picked up and taken to an animal refuge in Nottinghamshire. We brought her back but since she had a problem with her right shoulder, later identified by a vet as being inoperable such that she would never fly again. Rather than put her down - and with a willing and experienced carer to hand (Colin Pass) we decided to keep her in captivity.

Cathy in 2014 showing adult features

She was a docile bird and seemed to adjust to her new situation very quickly. Colin christened her 'Cathy'.

He looked after her for many years, finally handing her over to another carer (Leslie and Dave Robinson) a few years ago.

One morning last week she was found lying dead in her pen, presumably having died of natural causes.

We were not able to use Cathy for educational work as much as we would have liked for many reasons, not the least of which was getting a special DEFRA licence to enable us to take her to schools etc.

Cathy intrigues and delights a young lad at an open day at the cathedral

We would like to thank Colin, Leslie and Dave for looking after her so well over the years.

The Project Team

Watch Points to start soon and news of Cathy

Update 25th May: news has just reached us that Cathy, a peregrine reared at the cathedral in 2009 has recently died of natural causes. Cathy injured her wing and shoulder soon after fledging and had been in care ever since. More on this in a future post to the blog.
The Project Team

As the chicks grow bigger by the day, they will soon be visible from the ground as they start to peer over the lip of their nest platform. Once they can be seen from below we start our annual Peregrine Watch Points on the green behind the Cathedral.

Telescopes are set up so that anyone passing by (or visiting especially) can get a close up view of the chicks and their parents. Volunteers are on hand to help explain what people are seeing and the background to the project.
This series of events are organised by Emma Wood from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's People Engagement team, assisted by Marc Whitlock.

School groups can visit by arrangement....
contact peregrines@derbyshirewt.co.uk 

The Watch Points will take place (weather permitting) on every Wednesday (11 am - 1.30 pm) and Saturday (10.30 am - 1.30 pm) starting on Saturday 3rd June and running through into July. 

The definite dates confirmed so far are:
Saturday 3rd June
Wednesday 7th June
Saturday 10th June
Wednesday 14th June
Saturday 17th June
Wednesday 21st June
Saturday 24th June
Wednesday 28th June
Saturday 1st July
Wednesday 5th July
Saturday 8th July
Wednesday 12th July
Saturday 15th July

If you've not been to see the birds 'for real' before, then do make the effort to come along.
You need bring no equipment - we supply the telescopes!
If you've not been before then do please come along and meet our friendly volunteers and see the birds that you've watched online 'in the flesh' flying about (just the adults initially!) and finally all five (we hope.....).
Cathedral Green is on the East side of the cathedral, divided from it by Full Street. There's parking on street and at various council and private car parks within easy walking distance.
And the cathedral shop does very good light lunches not to mention their Bakewell tarts!
An added attraction this year will be the Poppy Weeping Window installation at the Silk Mill between our Watch Point position and the River Derwent. This begins on June 9th and runs until 23rd July every day. For more details see here .
The Project Team

Three cheers

Three of our four chicks have now successfully hatched out, which is great news. The first emerged early on Saturday morning; the second hatching out on Saturday afternoon. By early Sunday morning we saw our third chick, though it probably hatched late the evening before, judging by viewers' comments. However, it seems we may not be successful with the fourth egg - but this sometimes happens.

For viewers new to our webcam and blog, do check out the comments left by other watchers below each post - it can often update you far more swiftly than our Project Team can, and people are often quick to respond to questions you may have.  (Sometimes comment moderation is employed which can itself lead to a delay in information appearing, but we keep this to a minimum). The pictures and video below have all been captured by our wonderful band of peregrine enthusiasts. Again, links to these may be found in the comments left, or you can check out our Flickr group for screenshots captured and uploaded.








This 20 minute video by Wendy Bartter shows some lovely moments when all three chicks are fed so tenderly.


All our camera images are available under a Creative Commons share-alike licence. You are free to use and modify them, provided you are also willing  to make them freely available too.

We are having dificulties this morning with the camera feed on Page 1 not always appearing, However other cameras are functioning, and you can get an audio feed by clicking the link below

Listen Now (20 minute timeout):

Who's The Daddy?

Our first chick of 2017 hatched very early around 04:37am today. Once again, it was one of our keen webcam watchers (BeeThistle) who spotted and reported this on the comments section of this blog.
Here are some initial screen shots taken this morning - first showing a broken egg fragment, then just a very brief glimpse of a tiny chick. (scroll down for the full video of this morning's events)

Don't forget to check our other cameras - the view from our new Cam4 on Page 2 gives a great, low-down view, letting you see the chicks more easily. As its audio isn't compatible with our streaming service, here's a live audio feed from another camera which you may want to run in the background. It stays on for longer than the cameras, and is a great way of monitoring next activity.
Listen Now (20 minute timeout):

Once again, our webcam watcher, Wendy Bartter, has come up trumps with a great video compilation of this mornings action, together with a first glimpse of the newly hatched chick and its caring parents.






2017 has seen the latest ever date for egg-laying and hatching, as you can see by the chart on our Frequently Asked Questions page. Previously, the latest date was 10th May though, of course, this season has seen a significant change in the nest dynamics at Derby. As some blog readers may be aware, we now have a new male this year. This bird (with a ring on its leg) either ousted or replaced the previous (unringed) adult male (read more here). We still don't know precisely when he moved in, or indeed whether the eggs we see hatching today were fertilised by him, or the previous male, as the first evidence we had of his arrival was in early March - quite some time after we normally start to see the adult birds mating.

Watching and waiting . . . and now listening

Our webcams see their most traffic when our peregrine falcon eggs are about to hatch, with a second spike in views at fledging time. So right now is our most popular time.

Listen Now (20 minute timeout):



We currently have four cameras, two of which are new this year. Only the camera on Page 1 currently has sound, although we did purchase a second camera from Network Webcams with an in-built microphone and the ability to be remotely controlled, which you can see on Page 2.

Unfortunately, we discovered too late that the encoded audio from this new camera (Panasonic SW-175) was incompatible with Network Webcam's own Streamdays service, which we've used to great effect for the last 10 years. Having expressed our disappointment to Network Webcams, they offered to make good this shortcoming by providing us with a free "audio only" feed, taken from our other camera. This has a much longer timeout period (20 minutes) than three of our four camera streams, and so viewers might wish to click on the "Listen Now" button below to add in the missing audio.

As we watch and wait for what we are hoping will be imminent hatching, I'm sure many viewers will appreciate the ability to monitor the sound for that bit longer. If you wander away from your computer, leaving the sound running, you can dash back to restart the video feeds when you hear sounds of activity on the nest - perhaps a changeover between the adults.

Our other new camera can be found on Page 3, also with a 10 minute timeout. However, there is no timeout to the camera feed on Page 4, as this is series of static images which updates every 6 seconds or so. Viewers with limited internet connectivity, or a desire to run screen capture softeware (e.g Irfanview) all day long to capture those magic moments, may find this stream ideal.

If you do capture a moment you'd like to share with everyone, you can find details (here) of how to post them on our Flickr page.

Forthcoming events

There's a lot to look forward to in Derby this season.

Poppies:Weeping Window by Paul Cummins
(image from Derby Museums website)

Pretty soon we hope to be seeing the first signs of hatching of our (very late) eggs. We had a change of male this year, causing the eggs to be laid much later than normal as you can see from copy of our master timetable, normally found on our 'FAQ' page.
Extrapolating from past dates, we can expect hatching next week, around Wed 10th or Thursday 11th May.

EVENT

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Mating Observed

-

March

Feb-March

22 Feb - 30 March

22 Feb - 30 March

1 March

16-24 March

15 March

8-16 March

-

-

1st Egg Laid

5 April 06:30am

28 March 13:00 pm

29 March 14:15pm

29 March

4April

29 March

2  April

24 March

23 March

28 March

3 April

no cams

2nd Egg Laid

7 April 13:15pm

30 March 19:00pm

31 March 19:30pm

31 March

6 April

31 March

4  April

-

-

31 March

-

no cams

3rd Egg Laid

9 April 22:30pm

2 April 08:00am

3 April 04:20am

2 April

9 April

2 April

6  April

-

-

2 April

-

no cams

Last Egg Laid

11 April 08:15am

4  April 17:00pm

5April 13:30pm

5  April

11 April

5 April

9 April

31 March

31 March

4 April

9 April

no cams

First Egg Hatches

3 May

5 May

2 May

10 May

5 May

9 May

1 May

29 April

4 May

8 May

no cams

Ringing Date

no ringing in 2017

n/a

24  May

23 May

29  May

25 May

30  May

no ringing in 2009

20  May

26 May

1 June

-

First Fledging

16 June

17 June

11-22 June

19-22  June

14-17 June

18-22 June

14-16 June

9-11 June

7  July

23 June

7  July

No of Eggs Laid/ Hatched/ Fledged.

4

4/4/4

4/3/3

4/4/3

4/4/4

4/4/4

4/4/4

4/4/2

4/4/4

4/4/4

4/2/2

3?/3/3 1M;2F

Chick Ringing Orange Ring No. (Gender) (Note: orange ring on left leg; silver  on right leg)

none ringed

-

030 (F) 031 (F) 032 (M)

026 (F?) 027 F?) 028 (M?)

021 (M) 022 (M) 023  (F) 024 (M)

016 (M) 018 (M) 019  (F) 020 (M)

012 (F) 013 (F) 014 (F)  015 (M)

none ringed

008 (M ) 009 (F) 010 (F) 011 (M)

003 (F) 004 (M) 005 (M) 007 (M)

001 (F) 002 (F)

not colour-ringed

We'll then be announcing our WatchPoint dates to the media though we can tell you that they will start on Saturday June 3rd and run every Wednesday and Saturday mornings until early July at least. This year we're expecting big crowds coming down to see the Weeping Window poppy display at the nearby Silk Mill Museum on Cathedral Green. Maybe we'll see some of you there?