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malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> No strange overnight events, no poking squirrel

> with sticks, but very excited to see about 20

> swifts over the Horniman this morning. Only had

> swifts pointed out to me last year and tend to see

> the odd two or three. Oh and the Great spotted

> woodpecker having a drink from the pigeons toilet

> aka the bird bath.


The swift is in trouble apparently

https://www.rspb.org.uk/join-and-donate/donate/appeals/swiftly-vanishing/

Have two woodpeckers that call to the garden.


Interesting about the swifts. Why are we not making nest boxes? I have six spectacularly unsuccessful ones for blue and great tits - great in the first summer but since then.... Something has happened in our area, not sure if the neon lit house puts them off. Worryingly where have all the blue tits gone? - although perhaps they only do invertebrates at this time of the year and aren't hanging around gardens


Swift nest box project for next year https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/activities-pdfs/swift-nestbox-plan.pdf

Re ultra-regional variants - I had jays visit when I put out nuts and bacon rind, steak fat, etc. Other food does not attract them. I have never had a finch visit for more than a few seconds but get loads of blue and great tits, both types of pigeons and both kinds of sparrows. Long tailed tits came for a while in groups. I have seen a dunnock, or maybe it was a wren, and have robins and crows as frequent visitors. Never had a frog but had a toad once. Lots of bumblebees and honeybees, wasps, various butterflies (blue, white, Vanessa, peacock) and small red damselflies out front and lots of types of wasps/hover flies. (Goodrich near school)

My tadpoles are now froglets, and some of them have begun leaping from the sink into the garden!


I have provided a ramp, but they seem to prefer just jumping ...


Weirdly, some of the leapers still have quite long tails 😮


Also - for the first time in thirty years I saw a bat swooping around the garden (a couple of nights ago, around 11pm).


Ulverscroft Road.


Hope they don't eat froglets 😮


The sad reason for my being in the garden was that I heard what seemed to be a blackbird alarm call plus some bird commotion, which was strange at that time of night


I thought a cat was probably involved, plus probably young birds, but sadly it turned out the noise wasn't close enough for me to shoo away the cat.


I had to close my bedroom window, because the alarm call went on for ages and it was quite distressing 😢

Oh I I totally understand your distress at the blackbirds alarm call. It is a sound which which seems to pierce the heart! It may not have been as bad as you think because I've noticed the blackbirds make this terrible calling when they see a cat even if the cat is no threat to them. I I have four cats so have quite a lot of experience of this unfortunately
  • 3 weeks later...

As we exit lock-down, I wanted to say what a life-saver Peckham Rye Park wildlife has been for me & my kids. Watching the wild-fowl families grow on the lake and the Japanese Garden pond has been enthralling. We?ve watched the mallard ducklings, Canada goslings, cootlings & moorhen chicks grow up. We?ve watched the tufted ducklings dive like pros. All surviving the heron and cormorant.


Yesterday we saw a female mandarin duck with 3 chicks. (Thank you to the dog walker who took his dog the other way as the ducklings were foraging on the path.) This morning we heard the female Egyptian goose call, the male dashed over and we saw a single gosling, we hope to see more. They lost their first clutch in early May.


We?ve also seen young robins, young crows in the picnic area, nuthatches and 4 sightings of female stag beetles - no males yet.


Hoping that owners will keep dogs out of the dog-free zones & on short leads in the gardens to help the wildlife flourish.

johnrich: not open at the moment, but the Wildlife Centre in Marsden Road is a good place to see tadpoles/frogs. Keep an eye on their website for when they reopen.


Annie5: I believe Hampshire still have red squirrels.


Chocky: what a lovely sentiment.

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