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.
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.
88 comments:
Donated Thanks for all you do.. Both youngsters in at 08.22 the one underneath and tuther into Scrape cam 2 and both. calling
Thanks so much Kate, really appreciated.
This years youngsters are behaving rather differently from many previous years when returns to the platform were few or not at all.
The female underneath fell off, theres a lot of noise below (think mainly from the female) and the male now. Hope she is ok. I donated also a few days ago, please contribute so we can continue to watch these amazing birds.
09:20-09:40 - I've been keeping an eye on the platform and the juvenile male is present (Cam 2); usual stuff, stood on the edge preening, and contemplating the view. Probably wondering when the next food will be delivered!
Food in male juvenile munching away and I'm sure I can hear lil lady too
Yes, I've been hearing the juvenile female screaming for food on and off all morning. The noise really travels (as it's supposed to), but it sounds like it's coming from nearby and perhaps not from the top of the Cathedral tower.
Little man on cam #1 sporting a huge crop
Here's a snippet, any bigger it would explode! ...
https://youtu.be/iMahdeUGyZg
Yes! He had two large food deliveries over only a couple of hours. So much that he couldn't even eat everything. He still seems to be happy to be physically fed by an adult when the opportunity arises!
Maybe he's not quite ready to go yet after all he's been probably blown off by the wind and knocked off by his sister😂
What's happened to the female chick? Is she still in the vicinity?
Yes, I think she's still somewhere nearby. I'm pretty sure Cam 1 is picking up the sound of her yelling out to be fed by the adults, although she herself is off camera.
See little man still on scrape ledge in no man's land with no good view on either cam!
And he's there with parent now
Sleeping like an adult how sweet
Lil man sitting patiently for food to come in watching the world go by
Does anyone have any news about the juvenile female? Is she being fed by the adults?
Think he got fed up of waiting for food lol
10:40 - He's back again now.
The juvenile male and an adult were both on the platform when I looked well after midnight. The juvenile male was asleep, with head tucked into his mantle; whereas, the adult was still awake, and was watching the activities in the lamplit area below the cathedral. The juvenile male was still present when I looked several times this morning, often yelling out for a food delivery, but he's left and then returned (possibly more than once) since.
See him and hear him screeching at 11.20, bonus that he keeps returning😀
He's feeding on left over scraps. Good to see him as he heads toward independence. Any news/updates regarding the female juvenile?
Still trying to eat the leftover foot bless him no food at all this morning
Amazing to see parent swooped down near platform lil man followed and came back
14:51 - Having waited all day, no food seems to have been delivered to the nesting platform for the juvenile male. He started stretching is wings and, as I suspected, be flew off under his own will.
He arrived back at the platform again within the minute! Just a quick circuit of the area and back again.
And he's immediately off again!
He's back and eating
Yes! Food finally delivered at 15:30 and he want absolutely crazy! Snatching the food from the parent then turning his back and covering it with his open wings! After a tug-of-war with the food, he finally got the lot!
Good to hear that & sorry I missed the opportunity for good footage
Is anybody able to update re the health and location of the female juvenile please? Heard nothing about her for what seems like ages now. Is she safe and being fed?
16:45 - A second food delivery to the platform. The juvenile male is being fed by an adult.
Another food delivery to the young male. He's happy to be fed this time. Just about to publish and the adult has flown off with the food.
I'm afraid we can't be running down into Derby every five minutes to check on the juveniles unless we get intel that one if on the ground as happened on Tuesday in which case of course we will drop what we are doing and go down asap. We are now confident that both birds will be OK. The only time one repeatedly came to ground (and was swiftly reported to us each time) was when it was sick with canker and eventually died at a vets. The female that came down this week was checked for this disease which shows up in the mouth which becomes covered in mucus etc. The bird on Tuesday had a very clean and healthy looking mouth fortunately.
Thank you.
Some footage of little man looking so confident perched on scrape ledge with his full crop, happy as larry being able to come & go as he pleases whilst still having prey served up to self-feed on, hope big girl doing ok ...
https://youtu.be/03zSmHuaCjE
Thanks for that reassuring update about big girl's health check
20:15 - The juvenile male just returned to the platform (after multiple trips away today) in what can only be described as a 'crash landing' with lots of accompanying noise as he crashed into the back board of the platform. While the juvenile male may be mastering flying, he seems yet to master landing!
He's on the scrape just now being extremely noisy, surely not hungry again?
I witnessed this too was a lil funny bless him he's now sat one end of the ledge and parent sat on the other
It looks like he is
The platform is empty at this time.
He's back on the platform.
Thanks Morgan, rapidly losing his down,wish he would move tuther side so we could see his head Ha!!
Kate you're welcome and I was thinking the same.
Little man at 08.55 ...
https://youtu.be/6C5oUF038ZQ?si=nG_eOMb1aGWyOUo3
Your wish is my command Lol see below ...
Little man flew at 12.51, will he come back again, we never know!
https://youtu.be/Mlm-YHuRZeo
Can hear 2 lots of screeching going on off camera
Parent now in
Ooo with food
And little boy flys in for grub
So sorry to keep posting but little girl is near by can hear her when lil man's mouth is full lol
The platform is empty.
It is now I only went to get my car from the garage lol
Derby Cathedral has put a little video of the female fledgeling on their Facebook page. They could see and hear her from their office! She was on the roof of a building to the south side of the cathedral tower, just out of sight of Cam 1
I can't find it
At 15:46 Nattalie wrote, "Can hear 2 lots of screeching going on off camera". I agree, I looked at the cameras at just before 14:45 and at that moment the juvenile male flew off the platform; however, a few minutes later I could clearly hear two different juveniles yelling out for food at the same time (both off camera), each with a soemwhat different tone (presumably because the juvenile female is somewhat larger). Given my observation was a 14:45 and Nattalie posted exactly an hour later, it implies that the juvenile female may have been around the Cathedral all that time.
Hi Joyce and Wendy, the link to the very short video of the juvenile female (posted today by Derby Cathedral) is here:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1203657397733570
Thank you Graham
Yes glad you heard it too
A lot of prey they catching have leg rings of differant colours, are some racing pigeons ?
Thanks Graham - I will look for her again tomorrow when I’m on duty at the Watchpoint- weather permitting!
Excellent Graham. Thank you.
Lil man back in
Just spotted that. So glad he’s doing the unusual and returning to the platform. Great to see more of him. Shame the young lady isn’t showing off to us.
I visited the Cathedral today from 16:30-17:10. When I arrived, the young female was perched very high up (one level down), close to the top of the Cathedral, on the opposite side to the platform, high above the main Cathedral entrance. The moment I arrived, she flew, with a rather laboured flight. Whe she spread her tail, she appeared to be missing one of her central tail feathers; indeed, if you look very closely at the short video of her posted on Facebook by Derby Cathedral, there is a very brief view where one central tail feather does appear to be missing. She circled briefly, then flew towards the Law Courts and solicitor's area nearby the Cathedral; I could hear her yelling for food, but couldn't see her until she suddenly circled overhead again. I checked the nesting platform and the young male was absent the whole of the 40 minutes I was there and I didn't hear him shouting during that time either.
Thanks Graham. Is it safe to assume that tail feather will regrow in short order and that she’ll be okay?
Two birds on scrapenow but which ones
Mum and Little man at a guess, she is preening on cam #2 and he perched with back showing on t'other!
Thanks for update Graham
They are both still there now, little man screeching a bit!
Today's Watch Point is planned to go ahead as usual starting at 10am but, should it rain really hard, it might have to be curtailed early.
Do come down and support it if you possibly can. It is the last one of the year.
Both screeching off-camera. 07:25
Adult arrives and feeds male on platform
Adult flies off with bulk of food
Female appears on moulding below
Adult arrives on moulding, female grabs food, adult departs 07:27
Wet earlier, now sunshine
Good to see the watch point in the top corner I would love to have come down but I'm 100miles away I'm derby through and through tho
Little man at 10.03 looking down at adult on crenallations who seems to be eating, good views for those at the watchpoint ...
https://youtu.be/NOCWwzeOpYA?si=kcNPPi_MxFo-nxfT
There looks to be another event going on as well as the Watchpoint, lots of gazebos being erected!
Young male on the nest ledge, young female on the crenellations under the nest ledge - both can be seen on cam 2. Both adults keeping watch from higher up above the nest ledge, so there’s plenty to see at the watchpoint today!
I thought it was lil lady there ty for confirming
It’s the Silk Mill Lockout Festival
https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/events/derby-silk-mill-lockout-procession-festival-2025
Looks like an adult on crenellations tucked into corner IMO
Juvenile male being fed by a parent, I think the female, on the platform.
Male juvenile just flown off.
Quite amusing watching them with the background noise of the live music! They don't seem bothered by it at all, even though it's pretty loud!
Little man self-feeding at 12,47, adult in other scrape and another on crenellations...
https://youtu.be/eprtD0unCXs
We had a great Watchpoint today - over 200 visitors of all ages came to look through our telescopes and binoculars. All 4 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 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 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.
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.
There's a new blog post so please make any further comments on that one rather than this. Thanks.
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