Derby's Peregrines on DVD

"The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral" is a great little DVD, now available for purchase for just £6.

It tells the story of Derby's peregrine falcons and features Chris Packham, well-known as both a BBC TV presenter and as a vice-president of The Wildlife Trusts.

All profits from its sale go directly to support our webcams and other project costs. All the Peregrine Project Team appear on the film, as does national prey expert, Ed Drewitt, from Bristol Museum.

The DVD lasts 35 minutes and includes a large number of webcam video highlights taken over the course of the breeding season. Each short video clip comes with  a commentary, so can be of great for schools to use in class.



You can order the  DVD for  £6 GBP (post free within the UK)  from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust office in Belper [see below].



To pay by debit /credit card and have one posted direct to your home at no extra cost (if you live in the UK) please phone the Trust on 01773 881188 (Mon-Fri 9am - 4.30pm).
Your copy will be dispatched the same day. UK cheques should be made payable to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and sent to the Trust at: East Mill, Bridge Foot, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 1XH.

We can post abroad but we will ask you for an extra 'donation' of £1 GBP towards the higher postage costs. (The DVD is not region-coded, so it will play on all machines worldwide.)


If you wish you can watch a short DVD promo, read testimonials below, or see more of the work of artist Steven McLoughlin which is included in the video.

The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral is an independent production by Delta Echo Media who have kindly given us all the rights to help us raise funds for the project.

The DVD makes a superb present for anyone interested in birds, let alone for anyone who has ever logged on to our web cams or visited Derby Cathedral to see these magnificent birds for themselves.


Testimonials

• DVD came in the post this morning, have just watched. It is a pure delight, cannot recommend it highly enough. Congratulations to all concerned!! and Thank You! Audrey (UK).
• DVD excellent. I won't spoil it for anyone who has not yet seen it by saying no more than you are in for a treat. Enjoy!! (Pam - Derby, UK)
• Just finished watching the DVD, which I thought was excellent. Superb. (Ed Green, Chief Executive, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)
• Oh my gosh...I just finished watching the DVD and logged on to congratulate you all for such an incredible production. Thirty five minutes of pure magical joy. I was smiling the whole time. Ave Maria will hold new meaning for me now. (Veronica, Cornwall, UK)
• Have just watched the DVD, which is truly excellent - a definite "must-have". (Anonymous blog comment, Derby)
• I really enjoyed watching the DVD last night. Thank you Derby Wildlife Trust for a really speedy and efficient postal service. It's a super DVD and I thoroughly recommend it. (Sue H. Bucks, UK)
• Ee-chupp! Yeah, my DVD came today. It's wonderful. I was so mesmerized by the opening, it wasn't until it stopped playing that I realized I had to click "play film" :-) (Karen Anne, North America)
• "Its superb . The photography is lovely, the graphics great and the webcam images fantastic -the whole story, great mating and the early chicks are really nice too. It's good to see a modern slant on it visually. Liked the talking heads and the whole story. Thank you for inviting me to contribute. (Chris Packham, BBC TV Presenter)

Watch Points to continue plus donations feedback

News Update Friday 9pm: all four juveniles plus the falcon on the tower top, the tiercel on JI.

All rather wet looking....

Tomorrow's Watch Point should be OK - do come down, see the birds and say hello.

News Update: Friday 24th June 4:00pm
All four peregrines have now successfully left the nest. The last to leave flew out at 3:30pm today. We believe her maiden flight was OK, though are awaiting news of all six birds being seen at once - which isn't always easy!


With superb help from our volunteers, it will now be possible to continue the watch point 'season' through until, and including, Saturday July 2nd.

So do get down to Derby, see the youngsters learning to fly and do say 'hello' - if you possibly can.

Just to remind you: we run them from 11am to 1.30pm on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

So far we have received donations on The Green of over £300 - so a big thank you to everyone who has put something in the donations box or in the plastic peregrine with the hole in its head!

We have had some lovely comments from visitors and it is just great to see how thrilled people are when they set eyes on our birds for the first time through the telescopes.

Last Saturday, this family came to Derby from Blackwell, some 20 miles away, just to see the peregrines.

All four children (Olivia, Lewis, Erin and Daisy) had a look through the telescopes and went away very well pleased with their visit - as did their parents.

We know that many other people are still making special visits to Derby just to see these magnificent birds - and that is very heartening.
Meanwhile, a big thanks to the cathedral for sharing 50/50 the proceeds from the tower tours run on the peregrine event day (30th May) - that brought us in another £112.

So far from personal donations made as a result of our appeal on the blog we have received over £1,200. Add in the other income (eg from 5 DVDs sold at watch points and the donations there) and our new total for income since April now amounts to £1652 - so we are getting close to our target of £2000! This is sufficient to meet our hardware costs and webhosting fees, but unfortunately doesn't meet costs of people's time to maintain or develop the project. We are lucky that so many people are still willing to commit some or all of their time to Derby's peregrines for free. Do please keep it coming (we may well need more next year!).
The project team extends a big thank you to everyone who has contributed so far - and there are over twenty of you (plus the class from Gorsefield Primary School in Bury, near Manchester, who sent £20 - a really marvellous effort!).

Now let's hope our four youngsters all survive their early days in the air without any further mishaps. It should be fun watching them get their aerial confidence!

Fingers well-crossed please......and keep your eyes on the comments to get the latest brief updates from the project team.

Nick Moyes, Tony Grantham and Nick Brown

Donations and a DVD (updated with Video)

Update Again - Pipped egg and Video added (see end)

Hatching Day is fast approaching! So it seems timely to ask for donations to help to underpin this project. In past years, blog readers and webcam watchers have been generous in their support and we hope that your resources are not exhausted because the project does need continual funding each year. To find out how to make a donation see financial support .

Newcomers to the Derby Cathedral Project peregrine site this season may also be interested to learn that a 35 minute DVD, The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral, which tells the story of these birds was made in 2008. It has numerous video clips of the whole breeding season and features not only the project team but also Chris Packham, the well known BBC Springwatch TV presenter.

To buy a copy, either call at Derby Museum shop on The Strand in Derby, or The Silk Mill Museum on Cathedral Green, or get one from The Cathedral Centre opposite the Cathedral on Irongate.

By post you can get one from The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust by phoning 01773 881188 in office hours and using your credit/debit card. This method has been used successfully by many people perfectly safely, eg for making donations and for paying their subscriptions to the Trust (we have 12,000 members). The DWT office is open in office hours, Monday to Friday.

The price is just £6 (exclusive of P&P in the UK, extra for sending abroad - please ask). Now, thanks to the generosity of the producer, once the costs of copying the DVD have been covered, the project gets the whole of the money left as a donation. So you get an excellent DVD and make a small donation to the project at the same time...a win/win situation!

Nick B (DWT)

Update: At least one egg is now "pipped" with a small hole made by the chick from within the egg. The first photo wa captured at 11:30am on 28th April. (see also video clip at end of this post) The second on 29th April at 07:19am

DVD and First Watch Point!

Late note: there will be a formal Watch Point at the Cathedral Green tomorrow Saturday 9th May between about 10.30 and 1.30. Another one will take place the following Saturday (16th), same times.
Further news of watch points will follow during next week.
DVD:Newcomers to the Derby Cathedral peregrine site may be interested to learn that last year a 35 minute DVD was produced which tells the story of these birds, has video clips of the whole breeding season and features not only the project team but also Chris Packham, the well known TV presenter (and now a BBC Springwatch presenter for the coming series starting soon).


By post you can get one (plus postage) from The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust by phoning 01773 881188 in office hours and using your credit/debit card. This method has been used successfully by many people perfectly safely, eg for making donations, paying for subscriptions to the Trust (we have 12,000 members) etc.

The price is just £6 (exclusive of P&P - please ask what has to be added to cover this). Also note that, thanks to the generosity of the producer of the DVD, £5 of your money goes straight to the project as a donation.

So you get an excellent DVD and make a donation to the project at the same time...a win/win
situation!

Please note that The Cathedral Centre and Derby Museum & Art Gallery both now have monitors showing the live web cams. So you can see what's happening on the nest either as you drink a coffee or have a bite to eat at The Cathedral Centre (or take it away with you!) or as you stroll around one of Derby's three museums - well worth a few hours of your time, especially should you be strangers to the city.

The Cathedral Centre is open 10 - 4 ......but is closed on Sundays.

The Museums are open 10 - 5 except just between 1- 4 on Sundays.

Tony G, Nick B & Nick M

Here are some recent pictures from our Flickr Pool taken by webcam watchers on (8th May 2009).
by nja1969:


by dave arrowsmith:




by crazeycoco:


by n1ck1ee:




Here are some recent pictures from our Flickr Pool taken by webcam watchers on (7th May 2009).
by cocotags:


by rejsharp:


by christineself32:


by cocotags:

by Dave Arrowsmith:

by k_15H0r3

Talk on the Derby Peregrine Project

Next week (16th) Nick Brown will give a talk about Derby Peregrine Project to Carsington Bird Club (see http://www.carsingtonbirdclub.co.uk/ for details). The club welcomes non members so if you live within striking distance, do come along (£2 entry). Copies of the DVD will be on sale (at £6 each) - great as a stocking filler, as we said before (see the blog entry two down from this one - 29th October - for details of how to purchase a copy direct from the wildlife trust and have it posted to you before Christmas...or if you are in Derby you can buy it direct from Derby Museum or Cathedral shops).


A week ago my partner and I visited a very well known peregrine nesting area - namely the sea cliffs at South Stack near Holyhead on the Isle of Anglesey in NW Wales.

The weather was cold though sunny as you can

see from the photo which shows South Stack Lighthouse sticking out into the Irish Sea.


After a walk up Holyhead mountain (where a distant peregrine was seen sitting on a rock) on returning to the car park just above the lighthouse we were treated to a fine flying display by a female peregrine and soon after by the same bird and her mate.

Initially she was floating along above the clifftop but then she suddenly changed up a few gears and sped off out to sea, gaining height as she went. She had seen something - a wood pigeon. She made a stoop at the pigeon but missed because the wily pigeon closed its wings and fell like a rocket down and out of sight below the clifftop, followed swiftly by the falcon. Wonderful stuff!


Then, once she re-appeared empty taloned, she circled up with her mate high into the blue sky until lost from sight. Also seen from the same point were a couple of ravens and a small group of chough, a delightful member of the crow family which has red beak and feet and feeds mainly on insects - South Stack is a favourite place for this rare bird.
Charles Tunnicliffe, the famous bird artist who lived not far away until his death in 1979, used to visit these cliffs to sketch peregrines. After he died, a book showcasing his peregrine paintings, wood cuts and line drawings was published. Called "A Peregrine Sketchbook" it is still in print and well worth purchasing. (about £20 a copy).

Nick Brown (DWT)

Only 56 preying days to Christmas......

Just a quick reminder that you couldn't think of a better stocking filler than our DVD 'The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral' now could you?

Even if you have your own copy (which I'm sure most of you do by now) there must be friends or relatives who'd be interested to snuggle down by a fire on a cold winter's day and watch what happens up on the cathedral tower in the heat of summer?

The price now is just £6 per copy excluding postage and packing - so do get on the buzzer and speak to someone at our Derbyshire Wildlife Trust office (01773 881188) and they will post one to you at the drop of a hat (or of a prey item if you prefer!).



Speaking of prey, our peregrines are now turning their attentions to birds that have moved down from the north and east to spend the winter near Derby.

One such is the golden plover and I found an almost complete corpse under the tower only the other day. I also read that there is now a flock of 500 of these birds feeding in fields about six miles from the cathedral and just beyond the city boundary - well within the peregrine's hunting range.
The photo shows the tail of a golden plover - what beautiful feathers these lovely birds have!

Lapwings, fieldfares and redwings will also feature on the menu shortly I have no doubt.....as will night-flying woodcock and maybe some rarer night-fliers such as quail and some coastal waders moving from one side of the UK to the other.....we'll just have to wait and see what turns up!

Nick B (DWT)

Display in the ringing chamber

The cathedral bell ringers will be showing off their skills tomorrow, Saturday 26th, in the ringing chamber (situated about a third of the way up the tower) to anyone who wants to learn about this ancient practice. In addition, there will be a small display on the peregrines in the chamber plus the option to look at the web cams via the monitor screen up there.

The usual tower climbs will operate and there's a further tower climb day the following Saturday too (2nd August) though without the bell ringers this time.
So, if you are in or near Derby, do go along although I'm not quite sure of the times - so ring the cathedral for details.

This morning the falcon was sitting below the nest platform sunning herself and dozing - you can see her nictitating membrance covering her eye. No sign of any other birds.

Don't forget to buy the DVD, now at the reduced price of £6 (plus P&P) - scroll down to the earlier blog posting for details of how to get one sent to you. We posted one off to regular blog commenter Ann in Canada yesterday - hope you get it soon Ann!

Nick B (DWT)

Fantastic new DVD offer!

The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral DVD price has been cut to £6 so now is the time to buy a copy if you don't already have one.
Delta Echo Media, the company that produced the DVD, have now covered their costs and want to contribute to the project rather than take any profit which means that when you buy a copy at this new price, almost all of your money will go directly to the three project partners.


Ashley Sims, of Delta Echo Media, said:

" We have enjoyed been associated with the peregrine project and been greatly impressed by the passion and incredibly hard work of everyone involved, so much so that, we have decided not to make any profit from this venture, instead preferring to give everything over and above the direct production costs directly back to the project partners".


So, please buy a copy now if you don't have one already, in the knowledge that most of your outlay will come directly back to support our work.
{If you have bought one at the original price, please think that only because you did so has Ashley been able to make this great offer to us now!}


To get a copy by post, just phone the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust on 01773 881188 in office hours and we'll send you one at £6 (exclusive of postage) the same day.

As they say: Hurry while stocks last and while you have withdrawal symptoms!
Follow this link to find our more, or to read viewer testimonials of the DVD
Nick B (DWT)

Of doting donors and inspired infants

Following our appeal for donations to help support this project, we are pleased to report that 26 people emailed the wildlife trust to find out how they could get money to us.

Of these, 18 kind folk have made donations totalling just over £500 to date, a very encouraging response.

Today we have been chasing up the remainder, making sure we had sent them the necessary information. So far, most have responded with encouraging emails along the lines of 'thanks for reminding me, I'll get my cheque in the post to you tomorrow'!

If anyone else is inspired to send a donation, however small, please email us at

enquiries@derbyshirewt.co.uk to find out how to do it.

On Monday, a large red folder appeared at the Trust office containing wonderful drawings and writing from children at Brigg Infant School near Alfreton, spurred on by Helen Naylor, their class teacher.

Once we can locate a colour scanner, we hope to reproduce some of this fabulous work by these young but eloquent children here on the blog - so watch this space!

Encouraging children to admire and understand peregrines will be a major theme of our developmental work over the winter though we will need to seek funding to underpin the staff time involved....nothing comes free these days!

The photo, taken at the watch point on one of the few wet days, shows Andy M, one of our regular volunteers, helping one local youngster to see the young peregrines standing on the edge of the platform.
We have calculated that our brilliant 24-strong volunteer team contributed over 300 volunteer hours to the running of the watch point - an excellent effort.
They were (in no particular order):
John & Sue H, Andy & Chris M, Steve & Ann R, Mary C, Ian & Judith F, Mary B, Peter W, Margaret K, Sue J, Margaret & Brian H, Jackie T, Pat S, Barry P, Mike S, Jan H, Matt B, Diane L, Lynne M and Alison R. (We hesitate to publish their full names without seeking their permission).

Meanwhile, we have been busy writing articles and short news pieces about our peregrines - check out July's Derbyshire Magazine, August's Bird Watching magazine, Bird Guides webzine (accessible only to subscribers), August's Derbyshire Ornithological Society's bulletin among others.
The pud cam has continued to give plenty of good viewing of our birds even though their visits to the nest platform below have been rather few and far between...so do keep on logging in!
Shortly we hope to have a new exciting announcement about the DVD - so keep an eye open for that too!
Nick B (DWT)

Of DVDs and little owls, and moving images

After resolving their server failure, our Streamdays image feed is now back again from early Monday morning . The brand new audio-video feed from Media on Demand is also back working again, and Capita are investigating the probable cause of that failure. But these glitches are inevitable, and we're grateful for the speedy response of the IT experts, and for everyone's patience and understanding.

Over the weekend whilst all our picture streams were unavailable (see "Technical Hitch"), some of us clearly began to suffer peregrine withdrawal symptoms. Others actually did some work for a change! But in case it happens again it's timely to reminder that the DVD -"The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral" - is still available if you haven't purchased one yet. We've just had an excellent 'review' from Chris Packham who features on the film. For those of you who don't know Chris' TV work, he's one of the UK's leading wildlife presenters, working mainly for the BBC.

He's just sent us this lovely comment:

"Its superb. The photography is lovely, the graphics great and the webcam images fantastic -the whole story, great mating and the early chicks are really nice too.
It's good to see a modern slant on it visually. Liked the talking heads and the whole story . Thank you for inviting me to contribute. Chris [Packham].

To find out how to get a copy scroll down to the blog entry for 2nd May; by post from DWT or call at either the Museum or cathedral shops in Derby during the week.

Meanwhile, hard on the heels of the super video clip of the peregrine with a jay (see previous blog entry), we have just received a photo from Tony at the cathedral showing the head of a little owl. This is a new prey species in Derby, though not nationally.

Tony's photo clearly shows the small yellow hooked beak as well as brown striped feathers from around the face. A bit gruesome perhaps but this is just the way peregrines are....predators.

Little owls are widespread in the Derbyshire countryside, delightful little birds but just one down in number since last week!

Nick B (DWT)

Follow these links to:

• read how to watch our new live a/v stream
• read an overview of the peregrine project,
• find out about buying the brand new DVD: "The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral")
• add your name to our mailing list
• see many more pictures on Froona's very detailed blog over in Holland (both from our webcams and from many others around the world)

Hatching Soon....on a DVD player near you

Well, not the eggs hatching of course, but an exciting new DVD called 'The Peregrines of Derby Cathedral' will be available to buy very soon. Jasper Films have been working since February, gradually putting together a 35 minute DVD, the sale of which will financially benefit our Peregrine Project. Here's a promo video to give you a taste of what's to come. (Just click the image below of peregrine expert, Ed Drewitt, to play the clip)

Featuring Chris Packham of TV fame (and a vice-president of The Wildlife Trusts), plus the local Nicks and Ed Drewitt, plus lots and lots of video clips from the cathedral web cams, this DVD will be a 'must have' for everyone who has enjoyed watching these amazing birds either via the web cams or from the ground. As well as telling the story of our Derby birds, it will feature footage gathered from all over the globe, adding peregrine sequences we can't get via the web cams (such as flight shots). Their musical sound track will surely add a sense of mystery and drama, too!

So, watch this space for news of the hatching (i.e. launch) and how you can get hold of your copy.

(For Wildlife Trust members among you, an advert appears in the new issue of 'Wild Derbyshire', DWT's own magazine, which should be with you any day now. New visitors to this blog may also wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or have their names added to our mailing list for major news items.)

Nick B