The hounds of winter....and a couple of Updates

UPDATE 24th December: well the hounds of winter have run away for the moment and it's extremely mild today with temperatures in double (plus) figures. Some local birds are singing and a few great spotted woodpeckers have been heard drumming so how long will it be before the peregrines are scrapping at the gravel, bowing and calling we wonder?
Meanwhile:
Season's greetings to all peregrine watchers from the Peregrine Project team!
UPDATE 10th December:
Wendy's video shows the snow we have had today (Sunday 10th):



And the female peregrine surveying the scene below her on Monday (11th):

And Kate also captured this screengrab of the snow:

Snowy scene Derby Cathedral 10 December 2017
by Kate (from Devon)

December 8th: a cold snap here in Derby, as elsewhere in the UK.
Snow on the ground...and the Snake Pass road over the moors in the north of the county shut as a result.
Wendy's latest video shows the snow on the ground as seen from the webcams:



No sign of our pair but they'll be warming their feet on the illuminated signs on Jurys Inn Hotel nearby no doubt!

Unlike our birds  that have produced young every year since 2006, a recent report has revealed that peregrines elsewhere in this county (eg up on the grouse moors) are faring very badly. In fact this year (2017) not a single pair bred....the first time this has occurred since the species recolonized the Peak District in the 1980s following their absence due to agricultural pesticides.
Evidence points strongly to illegal persecution as the root cause.

Read more about the story here: http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/1055570/Bird-of-Prey-Initiative-2016-17-Report.pdf  and here:

https://markavery.info/2017/12/01/peak-district-hushup/

And do please read this inspirational blog post by a 13 year old lad called Dara McAnulty from Northern Ireland. He loves his raptors but is determined to do something about the widespread illegal persecution they suffer in his country:
https://markavery.info/2017/12/07/guest-blog-ramble-raptor-persecution-dara-mcanulty/ .

Inspired by him? Then do consider sending a donation towards his fund raising walk (the link is in his blog post).

The project team