Easter Eggcitement

Updated (Correct date for Wild Weave on Cathedral Green is Friday 16th April, not 16th May as originally stated. See end.)

The kids are off from school this week, and many parents' thoughts turn to how to keep the young ones occupied.
Well, Derbys Museums are offering two free family activities tomorrow and Saturday with a Peregrine theme which might well fit the bill!

Friday 9th April 2010, 10am to 4pm.
Saturday 10th April 2010, 10am to 4pm.

Venue: The Silk Mill.- Derby's Museum of Industry and History

Suitable for all the family, "Peregrine Watch" is free of charge, and there's no need to book. Just drop in. Kids can make their own winged warrior mask to take home. There's a "Peregrine Trail" around the varied items on display in The Silk Mill, plus a chance to meet one of Derby Museums' very old mounted specimens from early last century. We've always shied away from naming our wild birds, but just for a bit of fun with the children, we're running a little competition for the day to name our female specimen. We know very little about how she got into our museums' collections, but she must be well over 70 years old by now, despite looking a youngster. She's the second photo down in this information page.



I'm not sure what else my colleagues in Education and Outreach are planning, but The Silk Mill is a great place to visit on any day, so this'll undoubtedly add to the fun. There will be telescopes out on the Green for a chance to see Derby's peregrines around their nest site, providing the rain holds off.

The Silk Mill is right next to Cathedral Green and the River Derwent, as well as being close to the city's shopping centre.

If you don't fancy this activity, there are plenty of other Museum Events during the year, and a wide range of changing Temporary Exhibitions, too. My current favourite is "Into The Weave" and even if you miss it there'll be a chance to see the creator of this room-sized woven willow installation at work again in a big public event called Wild Weave by The Silk Mill on Cathedral Green on Friday April 16th from 11am to 3pm. It's free and everyone who wants to can help create a huge woven artwork out of ribbons which should be taking on a magical "web-like" form.

Thanks Marski2009 and Clare for their Flickr images used here.

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!

Sunday Event: Springwatch Festival, Osmaston Park

The BBC Springwatch Festival will be held at Osmaston Park, Derby on Sunday 24th June from 11am-4pm. (Click here to download a programme 425kB) There will be lots and lots of things to see and do: Stands, making things, talks, BBC Bus, live birds of prey and owls, Jelly from Cbeebies (thanks to BBC Birmingham for permission to reproduce the pictures from their Festival earlier this month). What else? Try your hand at willow sculpture, bird and bat box making, parachute games, face painting, henna painting, juggling, pebble painting and much, much more.

Hope to see some of you there as one of us will be giving a short talk on the peregrine project .

To Jenni in Hong Kong: - sorry if you won't be able to make it at such short notice!