Mike Dilger visits our Project

This morning (6th March) Nick Moyes and I were joined at the top of the tower by Mike Dilger of The One Show fame, Simon Hare, from the BBC's East Midlands Inside Out programme, a cameraman and Alex Rock from Derby Cathedral.
Mike and Simon were there to film an interview with Nick Moyes about our project and how relatively safe urban peregrines are compared to their country cousins who suffer both from persecution and from the theft of chicks for the illegal but very lucrative trade selling them for falcon racing in Arabia.
The nine minute long piece is essentially about how peregrines nesting in rural quarries and on cliffs in the White Peak area of Derbyshire are being targeted by chick thieves and how steps need to be taken to catch them.
The Inside Out programme went out on Monday (12th) at 7.30pm on BBC 1. Now it is available to watch from anywhere in the UK on iplayer. HERE'S THE LINK:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09vp8bj/inside-out-east-midlands-12032018 . The peregrine piece starts 20 minutes in.
Nick and I were there to do the annual nest clean up and camera maintenance tasks that we do every year. I say 'we' but of course it is Nick M, both a mountaineer and an all round technically highly capable fellow, who abseils down to the platform while I act as his unskilled assistant/gopher!
Nick was interviewed by Mike on the top of the tower and then filmed abseiling down to the platform.

Nick Moyes and Mike Dilger discuss our peregrines on top of the tower 

Nick prepares to abseil down to the nest platform to
clean it up and maintain the cameras

Mike was already very well informed about our project, for example, knowing all about our world first video clip which proved that peregrines hunt by night - in our case using the floodlighting to see their prey flying over the Cathedral.

Very sodden prey remains found up there today included two woodcock, two fieldfares, a blackbird and a teal.

Update on 7th: good to hear from regular web cam watcher Kate in Devon that both adults have been back to the platform this morning in the sunlight!


Male brings an offering to his mate the day after the nest cleanup. Screengrab by Kate in Devon

And a view looking south....

Now, where can I hide this........ Screengrab by Kate

And another screengrab from Kate showing the male (and his ring) with the back of the female in the foreground.

Dare I approach her? Screengrab by Kate

Nick Brown
Peregrine Project DWT team member

Ps. If you want to see a white tailed eagle web cam there's one in Latvia here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu7bChYGfiA . What massive birds and beaks!
Crossbills and black woodpeckers (making their 'telephone calls') can sometimes be heard on the audio feed and I gather a party of waxwings came to look at the nest the other day (while the eagles were away that is!). No eggs yet......but this Hungarian web cam shows a tiny chick (being fed a fish at the moment I watched it!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYHrHPWVoA . Birds further south breed earlier.....and here's a Dutch goshawk nest web cam: https://www.vogelbescherming.nl/beleefdelente/filmpjes/bekijken/terugkeer-van-de-underdog .