This week

There will be Watch Points on Thursday (4th), Friday 5th and Saturday 6th June this week.

As the chicks begin to exercise their wings and lose their fluff, so the day of their fledging edges ever nearer. This is a worrying time for the team and we usually have to rely on local folk to alert us to the presence of a fledgling on the ground somewhere nearby the cathedral.

Our theory is that the cathedral is too narrow. On a natural cliff, the first time fliers would be able to semi-circle round and land back somewhere else on the cliff. With a narrow tower, they can't manage a tight enough circuit to arrive back on the tower, instead missing it completely and landing either on a roof on the west side or even down on the streets.

The photo shows the feisty female youngster we rescued in 2006 - the only one to come to ground it that first year. You can see how big she was - males by comparison are much smaller in the hand - and easier to grab too!

Nick B (DWT)

Watch Point May 30th

Watchpoint Report Saturday 30 May, by Andy and Chris Marshall:

A beautiful sunny day today in Derby. We had a steady stream of visitors, some new (including a German family) and some now well known to us.

There was little activity from either of the adult peregrines throughout with the male sat on the top right “gargoyle” until he flew off just after midday towards the town centre. The female spent most of the session sat just below the nest platform, in the shade, dozing and occasionally preening although she did do a couple of laps of the Cathedral before returning to her perch.

The chicks performed well, putting on regular displays of wing flapping although it wasn’t until we came away that all four were seen at the same time. By next weekend, they should all have lost most of their down and be spending a lot of time perched on the edge of the platform exercising their wings ready for fledging – a sight definitely worth seeing!

Other sightings were 5 Painted Lady butterflies and sparrowhawks – one at midday, a female, flew past us and between the Cathedral and the building to the right carrying a prey item (possibly a Blackbird) but was gone in an instant (are they breeding somewhere nearby?). The other was seen overhead climbing in a thermal before heading off to the south. This didn’t bother our female at all – she just carried on preening as if nothing had happened. Sparrowhawks are obviously considered less of a problem than buzzards!

Thanks again to Celia for coming down to help us.

Common tern on the menu & watch point feedback

Please note: there will be a Watch Point on Friday 29th May weather permitting!

Given the rain, today's watch point (Weds 27th) has been cancelled.


Joyce Sawford, one of many who visited the top of the tower today, took this photo of a cached common tern in a lead gutter on the West side of the tower.



Common terns have been recorded as prey items before at Derby - as has one specimen of the very closely related arctic tern. This bird was wearing a Swedish ring when it was taken by one of the peregrines - probably in late April/early May 2007.



The bird's remains, including the leg and ring (see photo) were found on the nave roof in August of the same year when Tony and I went up to clean out the gutters. Checking with Swedish ringers, the bird had been ringed as a chick in June 2002 - so it was nearly five years old when it died.


This tern species migrates to the antarctic every winter - one of the longest migrations of any bird on the planet - so this bird (and its ring!) had travelled maybe 100,000 miles during the ten migration flights it had made......a remarkable traveller!





Common terns breed locally in the River Trent valley nearby, nesting on islands and special rafts on reservoirs and gravel pit islands. Arctics, by contrast, are coastal breeders. This bird was probably blown off its usual migration route up the English Channel by strong Easterly winds in late April, forcing it NW to Derbyshire where a flock of 80 was observed at that time at a local reservoir....a fascinating story!

Report on today's Watch point (25th) and tower tours from Andy and Chris:
( Many other activities were also taking place today) Many thanks to Helen and Celia for their help on the watchpoint which became very busy at times.Today started well with ideal weather for watching the birds, warm and slightly overcast followed by a little sun.On arrival the male was sat on the waterspout, the female on the edge of the nest platform and a chick was showing well, pulling some of the down from his body to reveal the feathers now well formed beneath. Some of the down became stuck to the top of mums head for a short time, (Wayne has a picture of this).We had a good turn out of visitors, some regular and some visiting for the first time. It is always great to see everyone and have the opportunity to share views of the birds with them. I hope those who visited for the first time but are regular visitors to the website now have a better idea of where everything is placed.At approx 11am mum flew of and was gone for some time, leaving dad in charge. When the first of the tower tours reached the roof, dad flew displaying nosily but quickly settled after they departed. (There are strict regulations restricting access to the area on the roof nearest the nest to minimise disruption.)Dad flew off leaving the chicks alone for a time. The chicks are now happy to be left and were flapping their wings which were visible from the watchpoint below. Mum returned without any prey and called for the male who she appeared to be able to see but we could not. Two buzzards flew high over the watchpoint at approx 2pm tracked by the male, however they were clearly too far away to be considered a threat. The watchpoint closed at 2.30 when the first few spots of rain started to fall. Wow what timing!!


Nick B (DWT)

Watchpoints this week

Apart from the special Watch Point and Tower Tours today (Monday 25th) as outlined by Tony in a comment to the last post, there will be the usual watch points on Wednesday (27th), Friday 29th and Saturday (30th May).

Details of future ones will follow during the week.

Nick B

Temporary Camera Problem

After yesterday's succesful ringing, (see video here) our webcam images have frozen this evening. They should be back online tomorrow morning. After this evening's service, Tony, our stalwart Head Verger, climbed the 82 steps of the tower to the halfway point to check our internet equipment. All seemed fine, so we think the fault must lie with the end of the 2-way radio internet link in The Silk Mill - Derby's Museums of Social and Industrial History. We're hoping its simply a case of an accidental unplugging of our wireless bridge connection. Easily done in today's climate of trying to save council tax payer's money and the environment by switching off all unnecessary equipment. We'll see tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here are some of today's pictures uploaded to our Flickr Group Pool:
by rejsharp

Chick Ringing 2

Here is a video of yesterdays ringing of the four peregrine falcon chicks on Derby Cathedral. It took place at 7pm last night, and was quickly over. Our thanks to the two volunteer ringers - Ant and Martin - who have many years of ringing experience between them. Ant believes we have two males and two females, based on their size and degree of development.



Even before we had left the tower the female was back at the nest platform, though was not surprisingly a little unsettled to begin with.


by Marski2009

Chick Ringing

The ringing of our checks may be happening tonight, subject to fair weather.
The webcams will be off during this time, so the images may appear frozen from around 7pm local time.

As usual the police have been given prior notice, and our two ringers are both licenced and very experienced. And with 18 Wildlife Liaison Officers specifically charged with investigating wildlife-related crimes in Derbyshire, the last thing we want is to have someone report illegal activity around the nest site from halfway around the world.

The process is very quick and although the parents fly around the skies above calling continuously, they soon return - often within the hour.