Thorp Perrow - Falcon

There was no way I could photograph this guy in flight! The peregrin falcon is the fastest of all birds, reaching an incredible 124mph when diving to strike its prey. Peregrins can be found living in suitable habitats all over the world, preferring open landscapes, but increasingly being attracted to cities with their tall buildings and plentiful supply of pigeon dinners.

This falcon flew for about ten minutes, swooping in to chase his dinner (which was being swung around on the end of a lure) and then selecting a suitable perch for a while before he had another go. Once he had outwitted the keeper and caught the dead chicken, he settled himself on the grass and proceded to rip lumps off it, obviously savouring his feast!

Thorp Perrow - What was through the gate

You remember that gate? This is what was on the inside of it.

The Thorp Perrow Bird of Prey Centre, housing eagles, falcons, hawks, vultures and owls and giving flying displays and demonstrations 3 times daily.

The buzzard (buteo buteo) has become much more widespread in the UK over the past twenty years. Once, a feature of a Welsh holiday was to see buzzards flying. Now, I regularly spot them around Derbyshire.

The main species in the UK is the Common Buzzard. I'm almost sure that this bird was a Jackal Buzzard, from Southern Africa. He would fly in to collect small lumps of meat from the glove and then settled on a suitable perch to wait for more to be offered. After a while, volunteers began to go up to offer the food. As you can probably guess, I wasn't slow in going forward. Amazing feeling to hold such a beautiful bird!

The second star of the show was this Eagle Owl with his beautiful mottled plumage, huge round eyes and  massive clawed feet!

Mainly nocturnal, these birds have amazing eyesight which allows them to spot their prey. They then glide in on silent wings to take their dinner unawares. With closed eyes, the sound of the owl's flight was almost imperceptible; just a quiet thunk as the post shifted on take off and then nothing until feeling a slight draft as he flew past. Who'd want to be a small mammal?

There was one more bird to be introduced, but I'll save him 'til next time.

Victory Road

My personal challenge for this round of Miss Jenny Matlock's alphabe-Thursday is to post about a location within the borders of my own county of Derbyshire, UK, for each letter of the alphabet.

Look for the letter, to see where I am.

V is for Victory Road.

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During this round of Alphabe-Thursday, I've posted about the city of Derby twice; once to show you the pleasant and (in parts) historic area of Littleover and once to show the multi-ethnic face of the city in Normanton. What I haven't done is show you anything of how Derby survives economically, so I'm going to rectify that now by taking you to Victory Road and the biggest employer in Derby: Rolls Royce.

Where better to begin than with Sir Frederick Henry Royce himself?

Born in 1863, Henry Royce was the engineer who designed and produced the world famous Rolls-Royce motor car. In Derby, however, he is best remembered for his own design of the aero-engine because that is what Rolls-Royce Derby is famous for producing, with engines and maintenance contracts being sold worldwide for both commercial and military aircraft.

Derby is the home of Rolls-Royce aero engines.

Sir Henry stands close to the end of Victory Road, near the junction with Moor Lane, outside the Derby Headquarters of the firm.

Interestingly, a friend who works for Rolls-Royce once commented that you can always tell a Derby Rolls Royce engineer apart from those who work in branches of the company elsewhere in the world. Derby is unique in referring to the firm as 'Royces'. Elsewhere, it is known as 'Rolls'.

Stretching down as far as Merrill Way at this end of Victory Road.

Sir Henry lived by the motto, "Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble".

Victory Road is less than a mile long and heading away from town, beginning at the Outer Ring Road and curving towards the neighbourhood of Sinfin. The industry is mostly packed into the three quarters of the road furthest from the city centre. This photo is looking in towards central Derby...

...and up here, there is another small industrial estate known as Victory Park. There are still units under construction, suitable mainly for light industry or commerce.

 
Continuing on, we reach the city end of the road, which now climbs quite steeply towards the Outer Ring Road. Here the industry gives way to houses. Mostly, these were once Council owned, but now many have been bought out by their tenants. It's a busy place to live though, sandwiched between the constant activity of Rolls Royce and the equally constant traffic of the main road.

At the moment, it's also full of holes. Pipes for water, pipes for drains, cables for communications, and electricity, but the new ones here are being laid by the gas board.

They're always digging something up!!

Before we finish completely, I'll have one more Derby post to give you a little more flavour of the city.

But right now, I need to find somewhere beginning with W.

Thorp Perrow - Gateway

I was really attracted by this gate. It looks so secretive and intriguing. In my imagination, it is the gateway to a hidden garden or a forgotten path.

Actually, it is neither, but one can always dream (and there was something decidedly interesting behind it!).

Thorp Perrow 7 - Meerkats

The Mammal Centre at Thorp Perrow houses a fascinating animal; the meerkat!

They have such inquisitive faces! The sentries stand guard and warn the whole group of impending danger.

Meerkats belong to the mongoose family. They are very sociable creatures, living in colonies around 20 to 30 strong. The home is an underground burrow and meerkats are proficient diggers with long retractable claws to cut through the earth and ears which can be closed to keep out the excavated soil.

So sociable are these creatures that a meerkat kept in isolation may become hysterical.

A litter can number up to five pups. The young are cared for by the whole colony with the adults taking turns to babysit while others of the group are out foraging. A babysitter will even risk their own life for the pups of another meerkat...

...which must be very reassuring when you're tired out after all of the grooming, chasing, play-fighting and general rough and tumble involved in learning to be a grown up.

Thorp Perrow 6 - Weeping angels

For goodness sake, stop blinking!

(Sorry, unless you're a Dr Who fan, that will mean nothing to you whatsoever!)

Thorp Perrow 5 - Inverted bugs

Standing this way up would give me a headache!