Incubation yawn time

Now well into the first week of incubation, it's a rather a quiet time on Derby Cathedral tower. Webcam watchers will see one or other of our birds incubating their eggs. And lucky viewers may catch a moment of changeover when all four eggs are visible.
We do try to zoom the cameras in during these times, perhaps capturing moments like those shown below.

Meanwhile, despite the heavy showers and cool winds, summer migrants have been pouring into the country in the last few weeks, mostly unseen of course.

Chiffchaffs flooded in about 2-3 weeks ago and now a trickle of wheatears is appearing. If you are out and about in the county, try looking in any bare hilltop fields....you might just see one pausing after its night flight. Ring ouzels have also been moving north, one even appearing on The sanctuary Nature Reserve adjacent to Derby County's football stadium in Derby!

Migrant ospreys have been seen at several locations in Derbyshire including Carsington Reservoir (the biggest open water in the county) where nest platforms have been put up hoping to lure one or two to stay and nest.

Male Wheatear painting, copyright Darren Rees,
The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA)

Male wheatear: painting copyright of Darren Rees of The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA).

In the next few weeks hobbies, the peregrine's smaller relatives, will reappear. They've spent the winter in sub-Saharan Africa feeding mainly on insects, par

ticularly flying termites.

Like peregrines and indeed all other falcons, they don't build nests. Instead, hobbies take over unused crow nests high in isolated trees or small groups of trees on farmland.

One of the characteristic sounds of springs gone by was the unmistakeable song of the cuckoo, another bird that winters down in Africa. sadly, with cuckoo numbers well down these days, I don't expect to hear a cuckoo unless I travel up onto the moors where there last stronghold is.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) satellite tagged five male cuckoos last summer in an attempt to find out exactly where they spend the winter and whether habitat changes in Africa could explain part of this bird's decline. All five cuckoos safely arrived in their winter

winter quarters but now at least one (Clement) has died and won't be returning to the UK.
Two are in mainland Europe, one in Algeria and the fifth is still in the Ivory Coast. Many people have been following these males and you can do likewise by going to:

http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

To see what birds are about in Derbyshire go to the Derbyshire Ornithological Society's excellent website and find the 'Latest Sightings' page:

http://www.derbyshireos.org.uk/news.asp

Nick B (DWT)

The cuckoo shown is a juvenile just out of the nest. It was taken by Richard Pittam at DWT's Willington Nature Reserve, south west of Derby last summer.

All goes (relatively) quiet

As we get further into August, so things at the cathedral seem to have gone relatively quiet though I gather that up to three juveniles (plus both adults) have been seen recently on the tower and on Jurys Inn (thanks Ian B for that information).

The adults are certainly due a rest after such a busy season. Rearing four chicks must take its toll.

Adult peregrines have to moult their feathers annually. This usually begins during or just after the nesting season but there is a good deal of variability apparently.

Moult begins with the primary

(outer wing) feathers and can take between18 and 26 weeks to complete.

I have found many moulted peregrine feathers under the tower over the years as my photo shows.

Meanwhile, the close relative of the peregrine, the hobby, still has y

oung in the nest. This

falcon is smaller than the peregrine and is also a migrant. It spends the winter down in southern Africa, only returning to the UK in May. The whole breeding season is about two months later than that of the peregrine. Hobbies are very fast fliers, taking small birds on the wing but they also love to eat insects. In Africa they follow thunderstorms that trigger the swarming of termites. In the UK, when they arrive back in May, they can be seen at several wetlands hawking insects including early damsel and dragonflies.

Last weekend I helped with the ringing of a brood of

young hobbies

only a few miles out of Derby. These birds select old crow nests to nest in and this pair had chosen one in a large oak tree in the middle of a field of wheat.

The earliest of the young hobbies will only just be making their first flights, with some not doing so

until later in August. By the end of September these youngsters set off south, heading down through France and Spain to North Africa and then on to West and even South Africa.

Apparently at this stage they are unable to catch birds, relying solely on insects for their food.

The photo shows a young hobby about to be ringed

What a different lifestyle hobbies have from our peregrines.....

Nick B (DWT)

The painting of a hobby chasing a dragonfly is by Dan Powell

watching hobby chicks

To watch two hobby chicks in a nest in southern England go to
the New Forest Gateway website where you can watch the live web cams (rather boring since the two chicks get fed only 1-2 times all day and otherwise just sit there!) or to see highlights of this and last year's action at the nest - which is frankly much better.

The hobby is the smaller cousin of the peregrine. It uses the old nests of crows and there are some 30+ pairs in the county of Derbyshire and maybe 1500 in the UK. The birds are very secretive at the nest and finding them is very difficult.

Since their numbers are low nationally - and because of egg collecting - this species has the same high level of protection as the peregrine in the UK.

http://www.newforestgateway.org/Home/NFGHomePage/tabid/98/Default.aspx

Hobbies take smaller prey than peregrines - birds like larks, swallows and swifts, but they also eat large numbers of insects. In the UK, dragonflies are favoured but when in Africa in winter, they follow the thunderstorms which induce termites to fly, picking off these large insects with relish. The painting top right of a hobby chasing a swallow is by Peter Partington.

The photo shows one eating a dragonfly in mid-air.

Hobbies breed much later than peregrines.

They only arrive back in the UK from their winter quarters in southern Africa during May, lay eggs in June, hatch them mid July and fledge mid August.

Nick B (DWT)

Watching paint dry!

After the excitements of egg laying, incubation is, by comparison, hardly riveting web cam material! But you have to be impressed by the birds' single mindedness don't you? It must get very tedious just sitting there on the eggs . . . though, come to think of it, peregrines are past masters at spending hours just sitting about . . . even when there are no eggs to give them a good excuse! So maybe incubating eggs comes more naturally to a falcon than say, to a warbler or a flycatcher, birds that are for ever flitting about!
Here are a couple more pictures of our adults, hard at work. First our male, with his slighter build, shorter body and slightly darker head. In close up you also see much brighter yellow around his bill and around his eyes than the female has. She is considerably bigger and rounder, taking up almost the entire width of the nest ledge.
Later on we'll post some more close-ups to show their faces in more detail.

Meanwhile, as April moves on towards May, the peregrine's closest relative, the hobby, is making its long migration back to the UK from southern
Africa.

Hobbies are smaller than peregrines. While they mainly eat birds caught on the wing, they are adept hunters of insects as you can see in the photograph. Dragonflies are a favourite food in summer and hobbies regularly eat them in mid-flight, discarding the wings which flutter to the ground beneath.

Unlike peregrines, hobbies nest in trees, using old nests of crows mainly. Like peregrines they don't do any nest building themselves, but lay their eggs in the cup of the existing corvid nest.

Hobbies are therefore not restricted in their breeding range to places with either cliffs or buildings. In Derbyshire, they utilise farmland, nesting often in isolated trees or small clumps of trees but rarely in woodland. Because hobby eggs are still collected by thieves, it is necessary to keep the whereabouts of these delightful little falcons secret....

Hobbies also breed much later than peregrines, the young hatching mainly in July and fledging in August, getting a little flying practice in before they have to start their first migration down to sub-Saharan Africa.

Nick B

Post-script: Sometime during today a fragment of peregrine prey blew off from the top of the cathedral tower, as often happens. Unfortunately it became caught on one of the anti-perching spikes placed on top of our subsidiary nest camera. Whether it will dislodge itself or move out of view remains to be seen -what we can't do is go down and remove it, at least not until our chicks are ready for ringing. Follow this link for more information on the camera installation

Nick M.

No news is probably good news

Further to the comment about the lack of new postings recently and as Tony indicated, all three key partners have been taking a bit of (.......we hope you'll agree) well earned holiday last week.

I was in County Clare on the west coast of Eire where I came across peregrines on three occasions during the week, flying and in one case hunting over estuaries and coastal shores. It's always great to see them in such remote settings!
When I was a very novice bird watcher back in the 1960s, when DDT and dieldrin were doing their best to wipe them out completely, there were no peregrines in England at all. To locate one, you had to travel to somewhere like the west coast of Ireland or NW Scotland. I saw my first peregrine on Cape Clear, a remote island off the SW tip of Eire, way back in 1962. (That tells you just how long in the tooth I am!)

On getting back home this time, I made a quick trip down to the cathedral last Monday morning to check for prey remains and to see if there were any birds around. The female was on the gargoyle above the nest and I found old remains of lapwing and snipe, two commonly caught species, under the cathedral walls.

I have also caught up with my local hobbies which have now just fledged three youngsters, two months after the young peregrines fledged! I gather from the local hobby enthusiasts that, out of 23 nests visited this summer, seven (ie almost a third) have failed, the highest failure rate ever recorded by them in some 20 years of study...and all down to the awful summer weather.

The wonderful photo of a hobby is by John Miller, to whom many thanks for permission to publish it (and it IS the right way up incidentally!) To see the original post about hobbies (and another brilliant John Miller photo) go back to the blog on 31st July.
Blog fatigue....

We do hope to keep the blog going over the autumn but please be aware that there is less (or maybe nothing) to report now the breeding season is well and truly over, so finding things to write about gets harder without straying too far off topic! A little patience on your parts may therefore be required.

Of course, you could probably encourage us to post more often if you chose to send in some more donations to support the project's future? While we have had 3 - 4 generous donations totalling over £100 from keen (one might even say 'some of our more fanatical') blog and web cam followers , some others who indicated a willingness to donate have yet to do so.....forgive me mentioning it again. Contact the Trust via enquiries@derbyshirewt.co.uk for details of how to donate should you wish to send us some further encouragement!

Nick B

this morning (Tuesday)

This morning, en route to work, I diverted to check on my local pair of hobbies. These engaging little falcons are a good deal smaller than our peregrines......and much harder to find!

So I was pleased to see what I assume was the male sitting on his favourite dead oak branch. With his back turned to the warmth of the sun, he was quietly preening, behaviour exactly mimicking that of the male peregrine I had watched on Sunday morning on the cathedral. High up near the top of this old oak, where the crow's nest that was commandeered back in May is situated, I could hear its mate calling which gives hope that this pair have managed to keep their brood alive despite the endless days of rain.

Hobbies are acrobatic fliers and fast enough to catch swifts, swallows and martins on the wing, as this fine watercolour by Peter Partington demonstrates.

With their rust-coloured thighs and deeply streaked breasts, their white cheeks and dark moustaches, hobbies are handsome birds for sure. No wonder that they attract the attentions of bird artists like Peter and, in more modern style, Greg Poole.

Greg's painting captures not just the bird but also its liking for dragonflies and damselflies and the wetland habitat they occupy. In this case it is the low-lying Somerset Levels, no doubt severely flooded still.

While my very amateur digi-scoped photo below leaves a lot to be desired for sharpness, it does at least hint at the sense of mystery which surrounds this magic falcon, here keeping watch from its oak tree.

Before long, these birds and their offspring will begin their southward migration which will take them down through France, Spain and over the Sahara to wintering grounds in southern Africa. Here they will wander across vast plains, savannah and miombo woodland, searching for thunderstorms which trigger termites to swarm in their thousands, providing a ready supply of protein-rich food.

So, a very different sort of winter lies in wait for these hobbies than the one the cathedral peregrines will experience. In complete contrast, the fledglings will stay within 50-100 miles of Derby, perching on pylons, aerial masts, tall buildings and trees too no doubt, coping with whatever our winter has to throw at them.

Nick B

Ps. And just so you know what this bird really looks like, here's a great photograph by John Miller, taken with his permission from surfbirds.com - a website which displays excellent photos of birds such as this for all to see and admire. Please note that this photo should not be used commercially or for profit without the express permission of the photographer.