A climb was undertaken yesterday to re-secure the two loose hatches in the eyrie. All is (so to speak) nailed down again and safe for the peregrines to accommodate once more. It’s looking cleaner up there now too (thanks Cilla, enjoy Hawaii!).
On another note, our Project colleague of many years, Ron Green, finally retired from CSU in January and we’d like to offer a really huge thanks to Ron for his tireless work in the early Project days in building & welding equipment, as well as carting the awkward and often heavy pieces up the tower, often single-handedly. Ron built the first smaller eyrie that we installed back in 2008, along with the eves above the hatch. Ron also played a large part in carting up the more complex replacement, and bigger, box a few years later, a procedure that was heavily choreographed for the least disturbance to the peregrines. Typically, Swift, the original adult female peregrine, became curious and flew on to the outside of the ledge within seconds of receiving their domestic upgrade, but refused to enter for nigh on two hours! Ron was also instrumental in arranging the tall floor-to-roost struts (how on earth did he get those poles up the stairwell?!) to give the box a more stable platform.
The team at FalconCam Project thanks Ron for his tireless work and support over the years, and we wish him the very best of luck in his long-time-coming retirement. Please keep in touch, Ron, and you’re most welcome back any time (… to help us haul up another bag of pea gravel)!!
We’ve contacted Milestone for help in reinstalling the XProtect surveillance package. As some of you who work with computers will have experienced, sometimes the simplest of install procedures can (and inevitably will) go wrong. We’ve upgraded to the very latest version but even this refuses to install on top of a brand new Windows 7 image (the current CSU standard image). Cilla will be pleased to be away from this major hassle for a short time! Needless to say we desperately need the app installed and functional.
Response to our new, live YouTube feeds has been sensational. So far (touch-wood) the stability of the feeds has been almost perfect, although we’re yet to test continuity in the scenario of a power outage. The larger and higher definition imagery, along with sound finally, has been a real bonus and we can finally include all Android and Apple viewing devices. We were going to move the feeds over to their own channel but for the sake of continuity will leave them as they are for now. The two CSU-based camera pages will shortly be adjusted to remove the old streaming feeds & server, and include the YouTube feeds instead. Thankyou to everyone who has posted and emailed kind comments.
And now, back to the Diamond, Xavier and family………
There’s so much behind-the-scenes work that we never know about – thanks to all of the hardworking falconcam crew for all that you do – for the falcons (who are still mysteriously absent…. has anybody put in an appearance yet or have I just tuned in at all the wrong times over the last couple of days?) and for us, the watchers from around the country and around the world.
Ah, retirement – good for you, Ron! (and thank you – watching falconcam is always a highlight of my wish-I-could-retire day 🙂
Hi Sue,
Thanks for your colourful comments. In the early days of setting up the technology and 1st & 2nd boxes we put in a LOT of preparation to minimise disturbance to the peregrines; we’re there to watch – not to interfere in their lives, of course. It’s taken a few years to get the technology working all by itself as much as possible, including automatic recovery after the regular power outages. Any human movement up in the Concrete Hilton is minimised and access to the tower is strictly monitored. We still have to climb the 50 metres of steel stairwell occasionally for cleaning & maintenance but nowadays, most of the time, the peregrines have their own quiet space.
We think we’ve achieved a lot in our use of available technology & recording equipment and hopefully we can say we’ve contributed to a better international understanding of peregrine falcons. And may that continue on in to the future… as long as Beau & Swift, Diamond and Xavier, and their offspring hang around the Concrete Hilton!
I’m sure, like us, you’ll have your retirement day soon too!!
Diamond and Xavier came back!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT1ROrGK6pg
Thank you Scott and Ron, and every member of the team,
Presented a sincere thanks and best wishes.
Has Diamond been around much lately? She was a “sleep in the box every night” bird for such a long time, but I haven’t seen her at all lately (I had a little look in between computer breakdowns and replacements) – have seen Xavier popping in and out, but haven’t spotted Diamond… hope all is well.
Scratch that last comment 🙂 Phew, good to see you Diamond!
The midnight visiter interrupting Diamond’s sleep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnTKFRLdBq8
lovely