ED Nature Watch

[Sue]

Mazza6 Wrote:

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> Turtle basking on a fallen tree trunk over the

> lake in Belair Park.

Terrapin? People get them as pets then put them into lakes when they become "too big" 🙄

[intexasatthe moment]

Nigello - hawk seen with blackbird 4.30pm today .In front garden Barry Rd ,nos 163 or thereabouts .

[Nigello]

Thanks - I think I saw a pair of raptors flying very high over Barry about ten or so days ago mid evening but they could have been crows.

[Jimwah]

Nigello Wrote:

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> Which part of Barry?

In the stretch that runs parallel to Hindmans Road.

[staplemeg]

Four fluffy Canada goslings in Peckham yesterday. They had been kept under wraps for a while it seems!

[Nigello]

6 Egyptian geese goslings with parent yesterday and today on D Park lake

[tfwsoll]

A pair of Greylag geese with 5 or 6 goslings were by the lake this morning in ED Park.

[Nigello]

Maybe I saw greylags. I can?t be sure.

[IlonaM]

Something fun for the family - songbird soundboard:

'What time do birds start to sing?

Have you often wondered who is singing outside your window when you wake up, and how long they have been at it? Birds use sunrise and the increasing daylight as an indication of when it is time to sing, and in perfect harmony they begin in a certain order. Starting with usually a single bird species closely followed by others when their time is right; and like a beautifully conducted orchestra you should be able to enjoy this bird concert every morning in the same order. Birds start well before sunrise and the earliest is the Robin so you will have to be prepared to listen out quite early to hear him performing solo.

Birds sing mainly in the breeding season, so you will hear males trying to impress females in order to build nests in the first half of the year with peak singing activity between April and June.

Click on each bird individually in the chart below to hear their song and you can also see an indication of when they start to sing in the morning - it's not called the Dawn Chorus for nothing!'

https://www.birdfood.co.uk/bird-song?utm_campaign=2190892_International%20Dawn%20Chorus&utm_medium=email&utm_source=CJ%20WildBird%20Foods%20Limited&dm_i=4K7A,1AYI4,6ASLVC,60S90,1

[Asset]

After 20 years of living in my house, I am now seeing sparrows in my back garden. Very happy to see them, I love to hear their chirping.

[legalalien]

The Chinese crabapple in our garden is blooming and standing under it you can hear the buzzing of loads of bees. I love this tree.

[Nigello]

It?s good that there?s a gap of a few weeks between the cherry and crabapple/pear blossoms.

[Waseley]

Anyone got suggestions of how to stop parakeets raiding your feeders?

[heartblock]

Parakeets none..but watch them for a while...intelligent, acrobatic, sociable and all those attributes make it difficult to discourage but interesting to watch. Although they can?t be bothered with niger seed feeders, so goldfinches are left alone.

Tree is beautiful and bird song link great!

Saw and heard a greenfinch on Greendale...haven?t seen one for years.

[Asset]

Yes I?ve seen a greenfinch on greendale too. It was a few years ago but good to know they are still around.

[Peckhampam]

I think we heard a blackcap in the garden today. It was a beautiful sound

[Mabaker]

All you bird lovers out there, RSPB are urging us to leave out dishes of soil and water to help migrating birds swifts, house martins and swallows to build their nests, as the expected warmer weather is going to make the soil too hard for them to gather mud.

[Sue]

Apparently swifts are now on the red endangered list, and their numbers have plummeted, presumably because of the drastically reduced numbers of insects for them to eat.

So anything that can be done to help them breed is great.

[Sally Eva]

I feed birds (squirrel-proof feeder) and squirrels eat the bird-rejected seed off the ground.

This morning a grey squirrel was leaping in short but high leaps persistently around the back garden and appeared to be trying to catch something very mobile but too small for me to see from a distance of about 15'. The jumps were very like a cat I saw trying to catch a mouse.

Trying to catch an insect? Anyone know or seen this behaviour?

[BrandNewGuy]

Keep eyes and ears open for the arrival of the swifts... must be any day now, I hope. Here's my list of the first recorded swifts in ED since 2011 (from the forum and my own observations):

2011 ? May 9

2012 ? May 1

2013 ? May 17

2014 ? May 8

2015 ? May 9

2016 ? May 4

2017 ? May 6

2018 ? May 7

2019 ? May 8

2020 ? May 6

2021 ? May 9

[intexasatthe moment]

Thanks for that BNG .Did you see that er are being encouraged by RSPB to leave mud pies out to help swifts with nest building ?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/05/mud-water-to-help-nesting-migrating-birds-during-uk-heatwave-rspb-aoe

[Mabaker]

Yes. I posted that a few posts ago but well worth repeating

[intexasatthe moment]

Ah ,typical of me ! Always late to the party .

[Jenny1]

BrandNewGuy Wrote:

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> Keep eyes and ears open for the arrival of the

> swifts... must be any day now, I hope. Here's my

> list of the first recorded swifts in ED since 2011

> (from the forum and my own observations):

> 2011 ? May 9

> 2012 ? May 1

> 2013 ? May 17

> 2014 ? May 8

> 2015 ? May 9

> 2016 ? May 4

> 2017 ? May 6

> 2018 ? May 7

> 2019 ? May 8

> 2020 ? May 6

> 2021 ? May 9

May 9th - 08:15 swifts ahoy!

[BrandNewGuy]

Excellent!