Welcome to the 2011 season of Peregrines on the Clock Tower.

There has been plenty of activity around the tower in the last few weeks - in fact the adults have not left all winter. Perhaps more surprising is that 2 of the youngsters from last year have also been putting in occasional appearances.

3 weeks ago the young female was flying around calling for food when the adult male flew in clutching a bird in its talons. Then last week I was lucky enough to see the young male tearing at a carcass alongside his mother - who didn't seem to mind the intrusion, although he only butted in once she had eaten her fill!

The bad news this, as far as we're concerned, is it looks like they're going to use the nest on the north face of the tower. This will make life difficult for all of us trying to watch what's going on.

It's not all doom and gloom though, we can still see the nest - just not as well as the one on the east side - and we'll be able to see the adults bringing food into the chicks a little later in the summer.

Here's to a successful 2011 season.

Breaking news

Female appears to have started incubating.

Just one week left now for schools to send in their weather data. Many have done so already and are well on their way to receiving their super scientist certificates.

So far this week I've had 305 records sent in! The schools that have kept the best records will be put forward for selection for a chance to win a nature activity trip. The winner will be selected and announced next Thursday!

Flower reports have come in by now from all across Wales. I'm glad so many flowers have survived this cold winter. Some schools lost their daffodils to the frost - such a shame - but they will still receive their certificates for being such good scientists.

This year's mystery bulb is a tulip. I really like this one because it is so colorful.

On Sat the 2nd of April we are holding a nature activity day at St Fagans. Click the link and watch these short films about the bats and other fantastic animals living at St Fagans to find out more.

Archaeologists from University College London and Cardiff University have been excavating remains of Isca, the Second Augustan Legion’s permanent fortress, since 2007. The area excavated has centrered on a building in Priory Field, located in modern day Caerleon, South Wales.   

Excavations in summer 2010 focused on an area of a courtyard building, with evidence to suggest it was a warehouse. A room in this building revealed some very exciting finds: the apparent remains of Roman body armour, ‘lorica segmentata’.

Archaeologists spent days carefully exposing these rare finds, which seem to have been thrown haphazardly on the floor of the warehouse.

These fragile artefacts were then carefully removed by conservators from the National Museum of Wales. The exposed objects were wrapped in Clingfilm, to prevent them from being contaminated by the materials used to support them.

Plaster of Paris bandages, similar to those used in hospitals, were very useful for holding these soil blocks together, and preventing damage to the artefacts whilst in transit.

Once the plaster had set, the team undercut the plaster blocks: this was a tense moment, as the archaeologists did not want to cut through any material that they could not see.

Supporting the artefacts with robust materials meant that they could be driven back to the National Museum at Cathay’s park safely. There they will be re-opened and carefully micro-excavated in the conservation laboratory.

The largest of the blocks removed measures about a metre squared, and had to be carried into the museum by 6 men, given its weight.

Progress of the investigation of this block will be recorded here.

On 2 April we will be launching the Explore Nature project

There will be loads of different things going on so look out for more information on the blog and on twitter.

As part of the launch I will be running an art and craft session about all things birds! If you fancy doing a bit of sewing we will be making badges or fingerpuppets and for little ones we can make spinning thaumatropes.

Oh, in case you don't know what thaumatropes are (I didn't!) they are thoses circles of paper that usually have a picture of a bird on one side and a cage on the other and then when you twizzle them it looks like the bird is in the cage. As we are celebrating nature we won't be putting any drawings of birds in cages! but will be giving them the appearance of flight instead.

The sessions are suitable for families, but adults are also welcome to come and sew some badges or fingerpuppets with me!