Still showing up

 It's now 24th June and still at least one of the juveniles is using the platform and therefore is visible on the web cams.
Long may it continue!

It's (almost) all over bar the shouting!

Update 17th June:
The two youngsters continue to visit the nest platform though with less frequency as time goes on.
How much longer will they hang about in view of the web cams?

It was good to see a still from our cathedral web cam featuring prominently on the Wildlife Trusts national news story about the various web cams run by local trusts all over the UK:
Webcams | The Wildlife Trusts .

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The rain held off for today's final Watch Point (on 7th June).

One of our excellent team of volunteers, Joyce Sawford, wrote this report with some great photos by Luke Wibberley to whom thanks:

"We had a great Watchpoint today - over 200 visitors of all ages came to look through our telescopes and binoculars.
All four peregrines were visible for most of the time. The young male gave us some spectacular displays of how good he is at flying now! At one point he came back in to land on top of the right hand camera, knocking the adult male off in the process, who then flew back to his favoured perch above the ‘shield’ on the right above the nest ledge.

          The young male on the nave roof near the Watch Point
                                 Photo: Luke Wibberley

The young female never moved far from her comfortable spot on the crenellations below the nest ledge , and the adult female brought her down some food from the nest ledge just as we were packing away. At times the young female sat up with her back to us, so we could point out the row of pale feathers at the base of her tail, but she spent a lot it time lying flat out and resting.

                 The juvenile female just below the nest platform
                         Photo: Luke Wibberley

The adult female spent a lot of time keeping watch by the rain gulley on the left above the nest on a level with the grotesques, and she retrieved some prey from the right hand rain gulley, taking it back to the nest ledge for the young male and herself to share.

                 The juv male peers down at his sister below.
                            Photo; Luke Wibberley

Please, if you can, do send a donation to keep the webcams rolling, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all again at next year’s Watchpoints".

              Brother (above) and sister (below) show their relative
                 positions. Photo: Luke Wibberley.

Hopefully there'll still be something to see on the web cams with the young male showing up from time to time.

Thanks to everyone who has engaged with our project in its 20th season. Please do support us by making a donation to keep us running for next year and beyond.

The Project Team
The project is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust with support from Derby Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter & the city Council's IT team

All's well that ends well

Update Saturday 7th June
Today's Watch Point event starts at 10am and will go ahead as planned though, should rain become heavy, it might be curtailed early. Please come down and support it if you can.

Update 6th June

The young male keeps returning to the platform whereas the female remains out of sight of the cams but we feel sure, safely up on a roof nearby or more probably on the tower itself somewhere.

Meanwhile and before you drift away to watch other web cams, can we urge you to make a donation to this project if you have been a regular web cam watcher and commentator?
So far donations have been minimal and the project will not continue unless we get more income which, as explained before, comes almost entirely from kind web cam watchers.

There's a donations tab on the blog home page......

Thanks in advance!

Update 8am on Wednesday 4th June

Last night's successful rescue of the grounded large (and feisty) female (which was then released at the top of the tower about 9.50pm), we hope will be the final intervention and the two young birds will quickly get better at flying and landing successfully up high on nearby buildings and indeed on the cathedral - usually on the long ledge well above the platform.

           The female on the ground just before being captured. Photo; Roger Lawson

Going on previous years experiences, it's not often that either juvenile will return to the platform but perhaps occasionally to the crenellations below visible from the cams...but each juvenile is different and the male at least has been back several times in the last few days (and indeed has done so this morning). Whether the female will do so remains to be seen.

It has been very blustery in Derby over the last few days and the likelihood that the female bird bumped into a building (probably the cathedral) was always a possibility.

One of our volunteers will check the cathedral environs this morning on his way to work but if the female is still on the top of the tower, she will not be visible from the ground.

If you have not yet made a donation, please consider doing so, we depend on you showing your appreciation and support in this way.

Wendy's video of the young male back in the platform this morning:

The Project Team
The project is managed by DWT but with significant help from volunteers and great support from The Cathedral, Cathedral Quarter and the city council's IT team.

Ps. The web cam connectivity alone costs over £1000 per year and total costs are in the region of £2000.