Too Close for Comfort.

Here's a rather "too-close-for-comfort" video clip of our adult peregrine falcon which we captured earlier in the week. At first we thought it was tearing at our camera cable, but later realised it was retrieving prey that had been stashed right next to the new tower-top camera.

Although this new camera does incorporate anti-perching spikes around it, these unfortunately had to be shortened so they would fit through the 13cm high rainwater exit hole on the roof of the cathedral. Should the camera lens ever get completely blocked, the unit is designed so we can retrieve it without in any way affecting the birds. UK law now restricts us from disturbing peregrines on their nest - something we are only to keen to respect!



Meanwhile, down on the platform, nest-scraping is going on apace. We've not had our recorder set up on our main camera yet, so here's a clip from last year showing the same birds in action.


(New visitors to this blog may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or add their names to our mailing list.)

Intimate Moments - and now a Competition!

Our new webcam proved its worth today, as did peregrine watcher, Kath P. She emailed us to report she had seen the birds mating on top of the tower via the net at 08:47 local time. So a swift trip up the 450 year old spiral staircase this lunchtime managed to capture the magic moment, which was quickly burnt and passed to our local Radio/TV station. This isn't a one-off: we'll see repeated short matings. Indeed they were at it again when returned from lunch at 2pm today. (see second video further below. You may spot the male flying in from the extreme right hand corner)

So, when will we seen eggs?? Why don't you try to guess?
A chance remark in the comments below our last entry led to a surprise offer from a viewer. We jokingly suggested we should run a sweepstake to guess when our first egg is laid – closest date and time wins. The prize? Well, I suggested an abseil down to clean out the platform in winter. Clearly, not really possible. But we’ve already had one offer!!

So, just for fun, here's our Easter competition. We had considered asking for an entry fee to raise funds for the Peregrine Project, but as we're not yet able take payment from outside the UK, we didn't want to exclude non-UK viewers from entering.

Here are the rules:

1) Place your “Guess” in a comment below this blog entry (Just click the red word “Comments”)
2) State your estimate of date and local time that the first egg will be seen. (eg 03 JUN 08:35 Please spell the month rather than give it as a number)
3) State a name or pseudonym and the town/country you're in.

We will watch our cameras and any video footage and report back on the first sighting. But perhaps some of you will be able to tell us first! Leave a comment here, or email: peregrines@derby.gov.uk

Competetive people can use the "Archive" facility on this blog to look back at last year's entries and make their best, informed guess for 2008.

There will be no winners or losers this time around. We can’t offer you a tower tour or an abseil as this excludes everyone outside Derby. Maybe we might run this again for real - perhaps based on the first fledging in the summer.

Good luck

(Of course, if you did want to make a donation to our project you are always welcome to email the Wildlife Trust on enquiries@derbyshirewt.co.uk , ring them to make a credit card payment on 01773 881188, or send to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, East Mill, Bridgefoot, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 1XH, England)

Feathers Fly

The sun broke through during a lull in our stormy UK weather this morning, revealing both of our peregrine falcons on top of Derby Cathedral through our new camera (dubbed by some as “pudding-cam” on account of its shape).

We’re all still getting used to the scale of images seen through this new camera, but eventually it became clear that it was our male standing patiently in the foreground, whilst the adult female was on the farthest of the three gargoyle, busily plucking feathers from a fresh prey item. The wind whipped these up into the air as she rendered her meal. This may well have been an item that he had caught and presented to her as part of their courtship. (Note: a later check of the video recordings showed clearly that the female caught this bird and brought it back all on her own. The male just sat and watched) Shortly afterwards they flew off and reappeared in the other cameras – the female below the nest ledge with her meal, the male standing on the platform itself. He then did a little bit of nest-scraping by lying on his front and pushing backwards with his feet to help maintain the hollow in the gravel tray, but mostly stood quietly on guard at the nest.

Sunday Action

Arriving early at the cathedral this morning, as soon as I opened the car door I realised the ravens must be about because the female peregrine was screaming and flying round the top of the tower.

However, as I dashed round to the south side, there was no sign of the ravens but I guessed they must be on the roof. After a while, one raven appeared and hopped over onto the favoured right hand gargoyle at which moment the peregrine renewed her attacks, diving down on the raven. Before I could get my scope in place, the raven and its mate flew off to the west and the female peregrine, joined by her mate also retreated out of view.

So here's a shot of the tower's south side with the female peregrine visible as a tiny dot in the sky to the left of the tower. The nest platform is visible as a blackish protrusion on the partly visible east face of the tower.

The second photo shows the gargoyle that the raven's are trying to put sticks on. It is the right hand one on the south side of the tower, ie round the corner from the next platform side.

Incidentally, the 'gargoyle' is strictly a 'grotesque' since it doesn't function as a water spout and is purely decorative. Make up your own minds what sort of creature it is! I assume that's a tusk rather than a tongue protruding from its mouth!

Ten minutes later the cathedral was devoid of birds except that a sparrowhawk flew in from the east and briefly perched right on the very top-most pinnacle before continuing on westwards.

It was a lovely sunny morning as you can see. A gale is forecast for this evening....

(New visitors to this blog may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or have their names added to our mailing list.) And be sure to se the previous blog entry about the new pud cam!

Nick B

Third Camera and First Video Pictures

It took a lot of late nights and a lot of missed lunch breaks this week - but I think this shot makes all the work of wiring-up Derby Cathedral and preparing a mount for our third camera completely worthwhile. (In fact I have to admit: it's been rather fun). It shows our female peregrine taking a meal on top of one of the three gargoyles on the east side of Derby Cathedral's tower. Directly below her is the peregrine ledge, and at 17:15 this evening we were excited and delighted to watched her feed before flying off to land below the platform, whilst our male bird stood still and quiet in the nest scrape. Click the image below to view the video clip from YouTube.



The camera is still being tested, and from time to time you may see sudden changes and maybe wonder why the links aren't correctly labelled. Please bear with us whilst we consider the best way of supplying three video feeds via two webcamera pages. Of course, we could easily arrange for a third video page, but first we would need to find a sponsor willing to offer us £150 for a three month webhosting contract.

Of course, acknowledging sponsorship or donors gifts is very important, and right now we would like to thank Acam Technology Ltd of Prime Enterprise Park in Derby for donating this little dome camera to our project. It meant we only had to purchase the special cabling we needed, and this support has helped us spread our limited resources much more effectively. We recently purchased a new video recorder with some of the donations made on Cathedral Green last summer, and I hope we can soon bring you the first video clips.

The camera looks northwards across two of the three gargoyles. In daylight we can see towards Rivermead House, thankfully one of only two tall residential buildings in our city. Immediately beyond it we see Darley Park, and in the far distance the undulating countryside around Crich. In the extreme lower right-hand corner we catch a glimpse of St Alkmund's Way, part of the busy inner ring road that skirts the city centre. The night-time view is not so clear, and the picture unfortunately contains a lot of flare from the infra-red illuminator bouncing back into the camera lens. We'll see if we can make this better just as soon as we're able, but there may not be much we can do owing to its close proximity to the stonework. The horizonatal line of bright lights you see is highway lighting along the A38 - the outer ring-road that runs northwards around Derby.

Finally, although this really deserves a diary entry in its own right, we would like to draw your attention to a fantastic new peregrine blog run by a Dutch enthusiast called Froona. Her site seems to be unique in that it compares the progress of a number of peregrine webcams around the world, and her use of captured images from their webcams is brilliant for seeing what other pairs of birds are up to. In Rome for example, they already have eggs, whereas we don't expect ours until the end of March/early April. (I just wish I had the time to watch them all!)

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

East Mill bird in the frame

Getting back from a meeting mid afternoon to East Mill in Belper and there on the south side of the mill, in full sunshine was the bird from yesterday, captured here by a bit of very amateur digiscoping.

Looks a bit maleish to me but comments welcome about its age and sex.......

The second photo (below) shows the North side of the mill where the bird was yesterday. It was up at the top right corner, perched on stonework at the very top righthand window. Hardly as attractive a building as the cathedral, it has to be said!
Nick B















PS. The final photo below was taken yesterday by David Hughes showing the bird on the north side. (Thanks David.)


(New visitors to this blog may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or add their names to our mailing list.)

Peregrine above my office!

The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust offices are about 30 minutes drive from Derby city. They are situated in an old cotton mill in Belper. So it is not easy for me to get to Derby quickly - for example to catch the visiting ravens.

However, this morning a local bird watcher phoned up to say there was a peregrine sitting on the Mill itself, just above our offices.

We all dashed out and there it was - an immature bird sitting near the top of the mill, looking down on us!

While we've occasionally seen peregrines over and near the mill, this is the first time we've seen one perching on it.

The bird's head was browny grey suggesting it was an immature bird. It could possibly be a youngster from the 2006 cathedral progeny or maybe a bird from another inland nest (there are several pairs nesting on cliffs and quarries in Derbyshire). We couldn't see any colour rings so that would rule out one of the 2007 cathedral young.

Whether it stays or becomes a regular here remains to be seen.

Nick (Brown)

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust (blogging in his lunch hour!)

On the raven front, I see they were present at the cathedral again today (Monday) - see Andy Simpson's comment.

Ravens are great birds in their own right.

Here's an excellent photo of a Welsh raven taken by top photographer Sue Tranter at Gigrin Farm in Wales where they gather with red kites at a feeding station.

Note their powerful beaks.......

More on ravens later!

(New visitors to this blog you may wish to read an overview of the peregrine project, or add their names to our mailing list.)