WoW at Derby Cathedral - Peregrines

Pictures 1 and 2 will be dealt with in due course.

We had a great WoW day and although it was Wednesday little Walking was involved.

The first job was to go to Ripley Town Hall to talk about the pictures from our 'Hidden Ripley' exhibition which they had been so pleased with and want to use in tourist-guides and the like. Reg, Mike and I attended but not being a committee member I didn't have a real role. As chairman, Reg dealt with it extremely well and reached an agreement which reflects great kudos on Eastwood Photographic Society. There is a time for 'keeping one's mouth shut' and I did my best.

Then we decided to visit Derby Cathedral where an Exhibition of black & white pictures by Dave Butcher is hanging. He is a fine-art photographer and printer of fully justified renown as will immediately be apparent if you click here. In the flesh of course, they look even better.

While we were there we discovered that Derby Cathedral has Peregrine Falcons and several birdwatchers and people from the Peregrine Project were on hand to help. One was allowed a peep down a spotting scope. Picture 1 is Mike and Reg at their table while I took a photo. Another click here will take you to the project's blog and the webcam looking at the chicks.

I've put some text on the photo to help you understand Picture 2. (sorry I've misspelt peregrine, but to go back and change it now would be a faff).

I apologise for the lack of sharpness but my 300mm Tamron isn't that sharp anyway and I was hand-holding. The graininess is because, for the picture to tell the story, I had to crop in very close. I'd tried Reg's 300mm Sigma from the table-side of the building and although it was sharper the bird was looking in the wrong direction and just sitting there. We had been told that the male had gone off hunting an hour ago and should be back. He arrived on cue with a pigeon for lunch for his lady and her chicks. Their diet is almost 100% birds they catch on the wing. A lady twitcher took great delight in telling me that they don't bother to kill their prey before plucking it and tearing it apart. Ah well! Red in tooth and claw and all that. What really appealed to me is that these birds were utterly free. Not semi-tame ones in some sort of zoo. These could leave whenever they wanted to ! Which is as things should be.

After all that excitement the search for a suitable chip-butty pub began and we eventually found one, and a good one at that, at Morley Smithey. After that, home. I picked Y up from the tram around 4.30pm and she too had had a great time and visited lots of interesting alleyways and things. The walk lasted bnearly 2 hours and was interesting throughout. They walked up Standard Hill and down an alleyway and saw a tiny oval bit which was the actual spot where Charles 1st raised his Standard. She didn't take any photos, but not everyone is as obsessive as me.

I think that is quite enough waffle and, after an hour or two's messing about, I'm going to have an early night. Y is grannying at Burton Joyce and I've got lots of computer and photograph jobs to catch up.

See you tomorrow all being well.