Of Life and Death

So, as many webcam watchers are well aware, a second chick now looks certain to die. From early this morning it was clear that one of the chicks was on its back, unable to right itself. The falcon (female parent)  did its best to shelter it from the sun, but made few moves to right it, though she was clearly concerned with it all day long. Despite kicking its legs vigorously every few minutes, the chick was not successful even in moving more than an inch or two.  Not surprisingly, many comments were left expressing concern over its welfare, asking about the cause and the solution. The realistic answer at this stage is that there is no solution - this is nature at work, and we must wait to see whether it regains the strength to recover, though this is not likely.

I had planned to find a form of words that highlighted how  privileged we are to be able to see nature at work and to highlight that, with this privilege, comes the need for us not to become overly attached or sentimental. All around us, everywhere we could look, nature is at work in its continuous life and death struggle for survival. But this comment left here earlier today probably does that job better far than I could, so we decided to reproduce most of it here:

"Although it's sad to see a chick not making it, and doubly so probably for the children watching, I feel we should be careful not to react as though they were human babies. This how the natural world is, and most of us living in towns and cities have to some extent become divorced from this reality. Don't get me wrong - I've invested a lot of my own time and hopes, like everyone else , in this pair and their chicks,  and I do feel the pain; but we shouldn't get sentimental . . . "

At around the time the picture below was captured earlier this evening *suggesting all three chicks were receiving at least some food) two of the Project Team met to discuss our course of action. The experts we have spoken to feel the problem probably lies with a "rearing issue", which itself has a number of possible causes.We're still investigating how best to proceed, and will do our best to keep you informed of progress. As we so often say here, these are truly wild creatures whose life and death struggles - along with those of their prey - are playing out countless times across the spring countryside right now and intervening is rarely an option..



We hope you may also understand that for each of us in the Team this Peregrine Project is not our main job - it's an added extra which we're happy to support, sometimes in work but more often than not in our own time. So forgive us if we aren't able to answer every question you may ask, or provide video clips of every moment - no matter how delightful or upsetting they may be. The comments and screen shots many of you are however posting are proving immensely helpful in letting others follow the daily life and death challenges faced by just one city's family of peregrines. And for that we're grateful.

Eggs-changing comments (Video)

Because so many of you watch our webcams from all over the world, it's rare we miss knowing about interesting moments up our peregrines' nest platform. It's the comments you leave that tell us and others just what's going on hour by hour. If you don't already do so, it well worth checking out the comments that others leave. They add so much more topicality to each post.

For example, on Thursday AnnieF. left this observation:

Well I've just spent at least 8 minutes watching the falcon doing her utmost to persuade the tiercel to give her the eggs. He was crouched over them, his head to one side and so low it was almost touching the gravel, and she at one point bent down too, so they were almost beak to beak! He was extremely stubborn, but eventually, at about 13.24hrs., he gave in. He didn't seem very happy, but she wasn't going to take no for an answer this time.

Egged on by a follow-up comment from KarenAnne in USA, I dutifully nipped out on Friday lunchtime and climbed Derby Cathedral's 82 steps to the half-way point where the bells are rung. This "Ringing Chamber" is where our equipment and video recorders are located. Reviewing what AnnieF had seen, it was clear that our  female falcon had actually spent a total of 14 minutes trying to chivvy the tiercel off the eggs! You'd have been bored by the whole sequence, as there was a lot of standing around with our female chirruping gently at him from time to time. But this is how it all ended.. . .



And we'd have missed stuff like this had you not told us.

Leaving Comments
To view comments scroll to the bottom of each post. The number of comments left already is shown in red. Click this to open a Comments Window. You can add a comment of your own in the box at the top right, or simply scroll down to read others' comments. Recent ones are at the end.

If you decide to write your post, remember that we discourage off-topic remarks and inappropriate language (lots of schools read this blog, you see).
Then, you'll be asked to re-type some letters to prove you aren't a piece of spamming software, and invited to select an identity for your post. Whilst we currently allow Anonymous comments, but this may well change. So do consider signing up to get an ID that Google's Blogger system  recognises.  There is normally a delay whilst comments await moderation. This task is shared between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Derby Museum staff (both in work and at home). So between us we try and keep any delay to an absolute minimum.

To report events that you think others would love to know about, do please leave a date and time. We have about 4 days before our recordings get over-written by new footage. (Local time is shown at the top of each webcam picture)

We may keep your comments as evidence of the project's success and economic impact. Many of you have left some great comments already. So, if you've made a special trip to Derby, shopped or stayed in one of our nearby Hotels, or simply changed your attitude towards wildlife and become a convert to the cause of conservation, do feel free to tell us. Although our blog stats show us that by far the majority of blog readers are in Derby or the London area, it's great to know where individuals live if they're leaving us these kinds of comments. It's up to you, of course, but never give too much away on a public site, like an address or make comments that an employer or indeed other person might take exception to

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!

Egg No. 2

A second egg was laid sometime early on Monday morning. Our male promptly sat on them until noon, leaving our female peregrine falcon high up on the projecting lead gutter on the top of Derby Cathedral's tower.

So on the right is the first picture we were able to capture but, over in Holland, Froona has been watching far harder! She beat us to it, getting the picture below up on her blog well before we did, and it was Karen Anne in the States who kindly told us that she'd posted it. So I've just stolen this picture from Froona's blog to show every else. What a crazy world it is - it just shows the network of peregrine enthusiasts who are avidly watching every moment of this year's peregrine breeding season in the Northern Hemisphere.

Many thanks also to those who left comments on the blog to report the appearance of this new arrival. Following a remark from one reader about how annoying it can be to have everyone's comments appearing in reverse order, we've now added a box in the left hand side-bar to let you see the five most recently added comments. Look under the "2008 Photo" and simply click on that comment to go direct to that blog entry and its feedback. Please let us know if you find this helpful. To leave a comment you will need to type in a series of code letters which is aimed at stopping spammers. You can aways email direct at peregrines@derby.gov.uk

(New visitors to this blog may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or have their names added to our mailing list for major news items.)