Caption competition, DVD and an update

Saturday Watch Point Update: all six peregrines were showing well today, despite the early rain. Two juveniles were on the cathedral and the other two on the roof of Jurys Inn.
It was good to see many people at the Watch Point including one visitor who had come over especially from the Birmingham area to see the birds 'for real'. Thanks to our volunteers today - Celia, Helen, Nikki and Joyce.
Three DVDs were sold - so perhaps it's a good moment for those who don't know about it to mention that 'The Peregrines of Derby' DVD was made a few years back but is just as topical today as it was then. Chris Packham puts in a cameo performance while much of the footage is video clips captured by Nick Moyes, showing the various stages of the breeding cycle.
To purchase a copy (price £9.95 inclusive of postage) phone the DWT office in office hours on 01773 881188 to pay by card or send a cheque payable to DWT to DWT, East Mill, Belper DE56 1XH.

Jon Salloway has been taking great photos of the peregrines for many years. The two here, taken yesterday morning, show the juvenile that was on the swimming bath roof.





If you can think up a caption for the photo of the youngster with its leg in the air, do send it in - though there's no prize for the best one!




Nick B (DWT)
Please note that the photos are copyright of Jon Salloway

Second egg (and the kids are back!)

Our second egg arrived sometime around 2pm today. Here's a screen shot when they first came into view.

Meanwhile, a juvenile peregrine was reported by a couple of viewers, one of whom said they had seen it this morning come onto the nest ledge, then get shoo-ed away by one of the adults. At lunchtime today this young bird came back to the tower top, where we caught the image below. It has much browner plumage on its back than our adults, and vertical streaks on its breast, rather than horizontal ones. No coloured ring could be discerned in the image, but we do know that one of our birds last year managed to lose its ring (which is most unusual). So we don't know if this bitrd is one of ours or not, though this is most likely to be the case. It happened in 2007, and it has been reported elsewhere, that juveniles from the previous seasons may return and investigate the new nest, or even help feed that year's developing chicks.

Two soggy juvs!

Added note: at 7.20am on 3rd September there are only 448 hits to go to the big 500,000!



This afternoon (1st September) we have had heavy thunderstorms in Derby.
This screen grab, taken in the late afternoon by Helen Naylor, shows both of our young males visible from the pud cam together......the first time for quite awhile. This is good news of course..... and especially as 008's colour ring was found under the tower a few days ago, prompting some speculation that he might have come to harm. Fortunately not it seems. The ring must have snapped somehow and then fallen off....we better ask for our money back from the ring makers hadn't we?

Nick B (wildlife trust)

Ps Hard hitting: Only just over 1000 hits short of our half million target now.....so keep up the good work!

One juv for sure

This morning (23rd) was fine in Derby. I located one juvenile on the police aerial as you can (almost) see in the photo. At the cathedral, one adult was crouching in the tiny space above the platform with its head obscured, so I was unable to determine its sex.

Meanwhile the clocks on the South and West faces of the tower look very splendid - as you certainly can see!

Sorry about delays in getting your comments moderated.....I was away last week and Nick M and Tony G were both very busy......but we'll try harder as of now.

Nick B (DWT)

News from the western front

This morning a trip to town early discovered both adults and one of the male juveniles. On the right is one of the two male juvs. He was begging for food from the falcon that was sitting nearby (left photo) both on a pair of aerials.

Overhead several swifts were flying about and a cormorant went over much higher.














Meanwhile, back at the ranch so to speak, the tiercel was on the platform, preening.

No sign of the second juvenile but there are a whole lot of roofs and other suitable perching places in town!

Apols for poor quality of the photos....

Nick B (DWT)

Watchpoint Report

To misquote one of our popular daily newspapers – Phew! What a scorcher!!
We had fantastic weather on the Cathedral Green today as the many visitors will no doubt testify!On the Peregrine front, the adult female spent most of the session sat on either of the two nearest pinnacles and didn’t show much inclination to do any other than keep an eye on her offspring. The adult male was seen briefly at about 11.30 hunting off to the Northeast but he didn’t return to the Cathedral before we left at 2.00 pm. Of the youngsters, we had views of a maximum of 3 birds but only two could be identified clearly from their ring numbers (these were 009 and 011). The other bird was regularly flitting between the parapet and the tower roof so it wasn’t totally clear if we had three or four of the juveniles present. Wayne did, however report seeing all four juveniles before we arrived. Unusually, we didn’t see any other raptors during the whole session –usually on a day like this, at least one buzzard drifts over.Thank you to everyone who visited the Watchpoint and thank you for your generous donations to the Peregrine Project.
Andy, Chris, Celia & Helen


The picture above is a computer-generated peregrine drawn by one of the (very) young pupils at Brigg Infants School who, with their teacher, Helen, have been keenly watching the birds since the spring. More images to follow.