Royal Visit to Derby

Updated (Watchpoint Report now added)

There were smiles all round when the Queen came to present Maundy money inside Derby Cathedral earlier today. The Royal Standard fluttered in the chill morning air as crowds gathered to watch her arrival.

Outside, the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust ran a special Peregrine Watchpoint, which was still going on at the time of posting this! So a full account of today's events will be provided later.

Above: The Yeomen of the Guard. Below: The Royal Standard.

It's unlikely we'll be offered jobs as Royal Photographers as the picture below was the best we could manage of Her Royal Highness and Prince Philip arriving! Nice hat, though.

Andy and Chris, who helped at the Watch Point this morning have sent in this report:
"We had a bright, sunny day in Derby but with a bitingly cold wind.
As we had expected, with the Peregrines now incubating their eggs in
earnest, there wasn’t a lot to see but on our arrival on Cathedral Green
at about 9.45, Nick B. had already spotted one of the adults perched on
Jury’s Inn.
This bird disappeared later in the session to be seen flying low over
the Assembly Rooms before disappearing from view only to return around
the North side of the cathedral carrying a prey item a couple of minutes
later. We were then treated to this bird flying in a complete circle
around us looking as though it would land on the cathedral but
eventually making its way back to Jury’s Inn where the food was cached
out of our view. He (we were pretty sure it was the tiercel) remained in
view there for the next half an hour, landing on the nest platform for a
short while before disappearing from view for the rest of the session.
Other birds noted were a Buzzard which flew low over the Green being
mobbed by a pair of crows and a Sparrowhawk which was glimpsed over
rooftops to the North.
Today’s was the first (and only) Watchpoint with the Royal Standard flying above us
on the Cathedral tower and with a contingent of the Yeomen of the Guard
in attendance across the road as the Queen presented Maundy Money in the
Cathedral. All-in-all an unusual and very colourful day in Derby!"

Lights! Camera! Action?

Hooray! Our webcameras went back online today after a longer than expected break. It's certainly caused the number of visitors to drop off more sharply than previous years, and we're relieved the fault didn't manifest itself during the main period of breeding activity earlier this summer. Thanks to everyone for their patience and understanding.

For those interested in the actual cause of the problem, an inspection of the so-called "error logs" generated by our wireless linkage allowed Cisco, the makers, to identify a bug in their software. New "firmware" had to be loaded onto the two transmitting units, one of which is inside Derby Cathedral; the other is inside The Silk Mill. As usual finding the fault takes a lot longer than actually fixing it, and it's with some relief that Network Webcams are once again receiving our images, and out thanks to Chris and others from Affiniti for sorting out our communication difficulties.

Keen-eyed Derby folk will spot that the picture opposite of Derby Cathedral is not a recent one. In fact the clock has no hands right now, but will reappear soon in stunning blue and gold when its long-awaited overhaul is completed. Read more on this story here and here.

Update: Colin informs us that Cathy (010) is still doing well, though he and the vet are worried about illnesses like arthritis developing which could eventually shorten her life. He gives occasional updates on his blog (but note that the images posted on 4th August were not intended to be those our cathedral bird)

Trust the Wildlife Trust.....

Now that the breeding season has effectively ended, followers of the web cams and blog will be wondering what to do with themselves and already several suggestions have been made about switching to other peregrine webcams elsewhere - indeed watching web cams on other species.
Meanwhile, if you have enjoyed your involvement with the project this year, there are a few things you could do to get more involved with us.
The project is a partnership between the cathedral, the city museum and the county wildlife trust. The first two partners will promote themselves later.
The third partner, the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, is a charity and a non-profit organisation set up in the 1960s. For its income it depends partly on the support of its 12,000 members who pay an annual subscription. Some members also choose to make donations in addition and an increasing number leave us money in their wills.
This income in greatly enhanced by contracts with local councils and by funding applications made by the Trust staff (of whom there are now some 25 people). Funders include the national lottery, landfill tax, charitable trusts and some corporate supporters. Most of this money is short term and hard to get hold - so each year the Trust finds itself with a (usually relatively small) deficit and has to adjust its work and its expenditure accordingly.

Clearly the work of the Trust now relies heavily on the paid staff, without whom it would achieve very little.
Having said that, our wonderful volunteers (numbering over 500) make a major contribution to the Trust's work.

These people contribute their time in many ways: some volunteer to help with the peregrine watchpoints and without them we simply couldn't run them at all! Others help on our many nature reserves around the county. Others do office tasks and a few give their time as trustees, overseeing the work of the Trust and ensuring it develops and operates in a proper manner.

The Trust works in many ways to look after the wildlife of Derbyshire and to draw local people towards a better understanding and appreciation of that wildlife. This Peregrine project is just one (small) aspect of the Trust's work which you can find out more about by visiting our website at http://www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/ .

The Trust's involvement with this project has been there from the very beginning but, as we have said many times before, without the strong partnership with the cathedral and with the museum, this project would have achieved nothing. We each contribute different and complementary elements to make up the whole.

So, if you are not a Trust member already (especially if you live in or near the county), you might like to consider joining us. Several of you have done this already. Others have joined their own local wildlife trust in whatever county or country they live in - and in many ways, that is just as worthwhile (remember the old addage "think global, act local").


Alternatively, if you have not done so already, a donation to the project would be very welcome. Such donations are currently handled by the Trust on behalf of the project and this system has worked well so far. Details of how to make a donation are here

http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/2009/04/donations-needed.html


Finally, you could offer your time to the Trust as a volunteer. For more details please see the website above or contact the trust via the website contact points.
Thank you.


Nick Brown (Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

Ps. The landscape photo shows a part of the Peak District in North Derbyshire where the Trust has a series of important nature reserves. The last photo shows some of our work with children, here making a giant spider!

You Can Ring My Bell . . . (updated with video)

Derby Cathedral is offering people the chance to try bell-ringing tomorrow (Saturday 27th).

During an Open Day people will be able to tour the tower, watch bell-ringing demonstrations and try ringing one themselves.

Doors to the Cathedral tower will be open from 10am until 4pm and admission is £2 for adults and £1 for children (over eights only).

For details of other forthcoming events at Derby Cathedral, follow this link to the What's On page of their website.

Shown below is a superb new video taken by John Salloway on 22 June, showing three juveniles being fed. This is taken from John's own blog, for which many thanks. He does warn viewers that it can get a little gory - but as we keep saying on this site, that's nature.

Derby Peregrine Falcons - Videoscoping. from Jon Salloway on Vimeo

There Are More Questions Than Answers . . .

Derby's peregrine falcons are now incubating four eggs. After all the recent activity and excitement it will be a reasonably quiet time now on the webcameras. The periods when the eggs are all on view like this will be short, indeed.

A vast number of comments have been left recently. Thanks to everyone who either asked or answered them for us. To read or leave comments, simply go to the bottom of the current blog entry and click "COMMENTS". It's always worth scrolling down through them to see what has been said recently. If your question is a topical one, you may well find it's already been answered. Simply complete the comments box and type in the word verification letters, which prevents spamming. This is a blog about peregrines, and it's rare for the Project Team to feel the need to remove off-topic remarks, as common sense usually prevails.

Don't forget the "Search Blog" box on the top left of the page to look through two years of amazingly interesting past articles! You might find much of what you're looking for there, plus some superb past photographs from a wide range of local photographers, too.

Here are answers to a few other recent comments that either need answering or repeating here:



Mucky Lens
The smudgy tower-cam lens (peregrine poo, we think) will be cleaned sometime next week, weather and health permitting. This will mean having to dismantle the mounting one lunchtime, so be prepared for some unusual camera shots. Why does it get called Pudding Cam? - well, you can find out here on our archive for January 16 2008 and January 24th 2008. Or investigate how far we've come in two years by looking back at our archive for January and February 2007 when we were busy blogging about trying to install our very first cameras. (Archive links are on the far left side of this page. )


Video Server
The "Multi-Image View" from our three camera feeds was swapped around yesterday because one of its video-processing circuits keeps freezing up. This has been happening for some time. We took advice from our suppliers about replacing the video server, but were advised against it for now. This work-around seemed the best solution, and now logically puts the tower cam at the top. But we're still finding one video stream freezes from time to time, but hope this leaves the main nest cam least affected. Just leave a comment if you notice this. We'll reboot the video server as soon as we can.

Someone asked via Comments how do you save webcam shots using a Mac. A reply was left to this effect: "Hold cmd + shift + 3 You should here a camera shutter sound and then the picture will be saved to your desktop with the name 'Picture 1' Hope that helps. Post up some pictures if you can."
Please ensure you send jpgs, not huge bitmap files - better still, send them to a website and post us the link!


WC Facilities in Derby Cathedral:
Tony Grantham, the Cathedral's Head Verger, replied to one question about whether disabled toilet facilities are available in the Cathedral. He says the easiest access to disabled toilets is when the Cathedral's Coffee Shop is open across the road. The Cathedral itself is also very disabled-friendly as 90% is on one level (if you disregard the tower). If WC facilities are required when in the Cathedral, just have a quick word with a member of staff who will make them available for you.

Is it The Real Thing?
Finally, we do need to point out that the only web-pages you'll find on the internet with genuine input from the Peregrine Project Team are this blog and related pages on our partner organisations' websites. (see "Partner Links" on left of blog). All other web pages or social network sites you may encounter are neither managed nor endorsed by us, even if they do link to us, embed our "feeds" or use our photos and text.

Everyone's enthusiasm for Derby's peregrines is really appreciated, but you'd be surprised the problems it can cause when official-looking web pages are created without involving us. Please remember that copyright also applies. In particular, we don't want to upset the photographers who generously send us their pictures. If you can't see a photo credit to repeat, just assume it's one of the Team's -so a helpful credit to the "Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project" is then much appreciated. A quick approach to us, explaining what you want to do, is often the best way to find out if there's likely to be an issue - we'll tell you. (email: peregrines@derby.gov.uk). Of course, done in the right way, we welcome all the links, promotion and support our amazing peregrine falcons can get!

Chichester Peregrines

The peregrine falcons of Chichester Cathedral featured this weekend in the national Daily Telegraph. Just like those at Derby Cathedral, they arrived a few years ago (in fact before ours) and have succesfully nested, raised young, and have been observed by thousands of people at watchpoints like those organised by our own Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. It's fantastic when local people can come along and view these amazing birds for themselves, though it's just as wonderful that so many more can watch the birds courting, egg-laying, hatching and fledging via their computers wherever they are in the world. Here in Derby we're hoping we may be able to upgrade our third web camera on top of the Cathedral tower in the near future so that our nighttime shots are as good as those from the two cameras mounted on the nest platform itself. If we can do this we should get an even better understanding of their nocturnal hunting habits. Irrespective of whether there are webcams and watchpoints on Britain's urban peregrines, the next few weeks will see an increase in courtship and mating activity prior to egg-laying at all sites in the northern hemisphere, and many will be ahead of our own pair. If you're interested to keep up-to-date with what''s happening at these other peregrine sites, and maybe get a sense of how our own pair of peregrines in Derby is progressing, you may find a blog in Holland of interest. It watches and reports on progress at a wide range of nesting sites in Europe and North America, and reflects the amazing recovery of this species from the brink of extinction just forty or fifty years ago when there were less than 100 pairs of breeding peregrines in Britain..

Meanwhile, this quad view image was captured from our live video feed this lunchtime, with the male perhaps wondering who exactly is watching him!

Christmas Pudding - in January?

OK - so it may look like a Christmas pudding on a stick, but here's the latest step forward in the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project for 2008!

It's a dummy camera, all ready to be tried out. We're just waiting on the go-ahead from the Cathedral's architect before we try to see whether or not we could install a third camera high up on the upper ledge of the tower. Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could see our adult birds mating, feeding or roosting on their look-out ledges? We think it just might be possible.

But we have to bear in mind issues such as avoiding damage to the historic stonework, or any visual harm that a camera could cause. So we hit upon the idea of inserting a small camera through one of the roof-top gutter openings. The hole is just 13cm square, and we think we've found a way of placing a camera so that it can be removed at any time (even during nesting). We would rest the camera on top of one of the lead gutters without obstructimg the flow of rainwater and, boy, have we had some of that this year! A pair of cords would allow us to extend and lock off a supporting plate once the camera had been inserted. This would make the long wooden batten sit up high on the sides of the lead gutter, looking sideways towards the gargoyles - or grotesques as they're more properly called. Once there, the camera and batten would have to be fixed down securely , but could easily be connected to cabling which we could run up the spiral stone staircase of the cathedral tower from our "control room" in the bell-ringing chamber. It could be strapped to existing power cables and would require no special routing. And the best part is that we think we could insert and replace it during the breeding season without the birds being disturbed in any way.

The camera would be a small dome model, just 12 x 10cm diameter, under a dark shiny cover, and placed less than 2m away from the nearest gargoyles, yet totally invisible to the naked eye and removable in an instant. We would use some of the donations we have received from supporters to purchase and install the equipment.

We'll let you know the moment a lump of polystyrene from the local recycling centre becomes a realistic web-camera option!

Derby "De-Lights" Tonight

The lights in Derby go out for an hour tonight between 9pm-10pm local time (Monday 26th), as part of a city-wide campaign to raise awareness of the impact we all make on global energy consumption and climate change emissions. Businesses and home users are all being urged to demonstrate the impact we can all make on the environment by switching off lights and other equipment. You can read more here.

You may therefore notice of one of three things with our webcams:

a) no change at all - everything works fine

b) the picture freezes as the power to the tower is cut for an hour

c) background street illumination is dimmed as all Christmas lights, cathedral floodlights and other lights are turned off (except street lighting, of course)

I hope readers will forgive us if we don't specially go in to turn off the webcamera power for this period; it would use more energy in petrol for us to drive in than it would save. But rest assured that this blog-writer's home will have all un-needed power consumption turned off. Nothing new there, then.

Meanwhile, do enjoy the image below of our male peregrine keeping up appearances on the nest scrape at the weekend. He was actively pushing back the gravel layer with his feet for quite some time. It's looking good for next season!

Unusual Views of Derby Cathedral.

Here are some unusual views of Derby Cathedral we thought you might like to look at whilst some of us ponder the fact that today our 200,000th web hit will almost undoubtedly be reached. All of us - the Cathedral, The Wildlife Trust, the City Council and of course its Museum Service - have been awestruck by the incredible interest so many people around the world have shown in our city's peregrine falcons. It was a pleasure in June to be able to turn off moderation of comments and to read all the topical observations and remarks that so many different people were making as they watched these magnificent birds in action and reported on their actions.

So that you can see the Cathedral's interior, local photographer Andy Savage has provided us with a link to one of his 360 degree images taken inside Derby Cathedral. You can click and drag your mouse across the image to make it scroll around inside, or hit Shift or Control to zoom in and out. There's an alternate version available here for anyone have difficulties viewing it. For an exterior shots, see this blog entry for July 5th

Of course, there are plenty of other people's shots of Derby Cathedral online, such as those on flickr like this one, or this one, or this one or this one.

And finally, here's a time-lapse video from the top of the tower, also taken by Andy Savage. I understand that Nick Brown plans to post some general views from the top of the tower in the near future to give visitors an idea of what Derby's skyline actually looks like. Follow this link if you'd like to learn more about a sponsored abseil in September to raise funds for Derby Cathedral. (Please note: all Streamdays cameras will be off line for c 1hr on Thursday at 5pm local time. More info here)

BBC TV "Springwatch" Tonight

We heard last night that the BBC TV's "Springwatch" programme will broadcast webcam film of our peregrines on national TV tonight. (BBC2 8-9pm Wednesday 13th).

But as with all things, it's never simple.

The clips were only likely to have been broadcast if they could get some exterior film of the Cathedral. Unfortunately they didn't have any, and it was far too late to get it from the our regional BBC TV station in Nottingham. So, for the last 12 hours, the peregrine project team have been frantically trying to send them over 200Mb of home video files (in .mpg and .avi format). Now this is not something you can email, so overnight we've had to build a special website just to upload the files to, in the hope they can be downloaded and viewed by the Springwatch Team later today. Obviously they needed to be assured it's of sufficient quality for broadcast, and, if it's not, our films would probably appeared on Autumnwatch instead.

But we received confirmation this morning that they would be used tonight, barring unforeseen circumstances. So, we'll all be glued to our TV sets this-evening!

Here's one of the clips we sent them, taken on Sunday 10th June.

Sunday 10th June

Please note: if you have just arrived at this blog via the Springwatch link - welcome! We have two peregrine chicks visible on live webcams right now: click on the word webcams in blue just to the left. Remember, we have two cameras so if there's nothing on the first one, click on the other one to see the chicks. To read lots of background, go back on the blog and read and see the whole story, including YouTube video clips with sound showing earlier stages of the peregrine nesting season here at Derby Cathedral. Our webcams are being watched around the globe and many viewers think our pictures and storylines are some of the best they have ever seen! Send us a comment if you agree!

This Sunday (10th) the Peregrine Watch Point on Cathedral Green will run all day to link up with other environmental events elsewhere around the city. So, if you live nearby, why not come down and meet the project team and the Wildlife Trust's volunteers and see the peregrines for real?

With a bit of luck, you should see one or both parents flying about and get a more complete idea of where they are nesting and what they do when they are away from the nest. We can also show you other wildlife in the area, from grey wagtails to harlequin ladybirds!



You could take time to admire the cathedral's fine mediaeval sandstone tower, search out the two 'green men' either side of the West door and look inside the cathedral itself. (If you come on a weekday, you can get light refreshments and a drink in the cafe at the award winning Cathedral Centre on Irongate and, maybe, buy a toy peregrine from their shop. They come in two sizes and both make real peregrine calls when you squeeze them!)



Further information about the cathedral is on their website at www.derbycathedral.org.



From the very beginning, the cathedral's staff have been most supportive of the project and none more so than Head Verger, Tony Grantham. Tony has become something of a peregrine addict, even coming back after a day's work to open doors, run up and down the tower's 189 steps and help with the ringing last week. His close-up photos of the chicks can be seen on the blog.


Maybe see you on Sunday......or just call by any day between 10-2pm, weather permitting.

Getting Our Skates On

It’s the New Year already, and our plans for three web cameras and live streaming video of Derby's peregrine falcons seems frighteningly close and rather ambitious. OK, we’ve been planning this for a couple of months, and talking to a wide range of people, but now we need to get our skates on. Calls to the Council’s website team seem very positive. Even our first contact with our Health and Safety Unit didn’t seem too negative. Just before Christmas the BBC said they wanted to install a microwave link on Derby Cathedral Tower so that they can capture and show our pictures on the regional TV news, but we can’t give them the go ahead until we get the OK for power cables to be run safely up the spiral stone staircase. It’s a listed building, built in 1530, so we aren’t allowed to drill or damage the stonework in any way. Everything we do has to be removable and leave no marks.