ED Nature Watch

[Nigello]

I just saw a (male) blackcap feeding on suet balls in my front garden - a first.

[staplemeg]

My partner heard an owl in the night earlier this week, we’re on Barry Road. We both heard it again tonight, sounded pretty nearby. Amazing sound!

[Nigello]

I used to hear one - the classic hoot - around Dunstan’s Heights but not for ages.

[HeadNun]

Has anyone else noticed the rat population in Peckham park has exploded? I used to spot one a week, now I'm seeing three in ten minutes.

[RichH]

Has anyone else noticed the rat population in Peckham park has exploded? I used to spot one a week, now I'm seeing three in ten minutes.

 

I don't know about the Park or Rye specifically but suspect that the rat population in these parts has been increasing since the pandemic lockdown. I've certainly noticed more of them around over the last year or two. Less people and thus less restaurants/cafes/takeaways/market food stalls etc. open in the "city" combined with more people now working from home means that there's less grub for rats up in town and more available here. They're merely following the path of least resistance to accessible food.

The local foxes seem healthier and far less scrawny nowadays, maybe for the same reason.

[malumbu]

Talking about rats any suggestions for cheap rat and rat with long fluffy tails containers to keep my bird food in, in the shed. They chew through paper and plastic. The rat in the shed was dispatched.

[Sue]

Talking about rats any suggestions for cheap rat and rat with long fluffy tails containers to keep my bird food in, in the shed. They chew through paper and plastic. The rat in the shed was dispatched.

 

Try metal containers? They will chew through anything else. Metal dustbins or incinerators (block up the hole with wire or something?)

Or else somehow ratproof the whole shed, but that might prove rather more difficult.

Or put something strong smelling near the birdfood so the rats and the fluffy tailed ones can't smell the birdfood?

[malumbu]

Yes metal containers but I spend enough on feed and don't want to spend loads on these. The blighters don't get often ie opportunist.

I'll continue checking out thePosh Junk shop for cheap recepticles.

[exdulwicher]

Yes metal containers but I spend enough on feed and don't want to spend loads on these. The blighters don't get often ie opportunist.

I'll continue checking out thePosh Junk shop for cheap recepticles.

 

Use an old bread bin. Metal or ceramic ones will be impregnable!

We (very occasionally) put out half a tin of dog food for foxes in the cold weather but it's up on a small bird bath type thing so that rats can't get to it. Never bothered leaving a camera on it to film them although it's invariably gone by morning. See foxes up and down the road quite regularly.

This weekend is the RSPB Garden Birdwatch if anyone is interested...

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

[Sue]

Yes metal containers but I spend enough on feed and don't want to spend loads on these. The blighters don't get often ie opportunist.

I'll continue checking out thePosh Junk shop for cheap recepticles.

 

You could try posting in the 'Wanted' section on here? Somebody might be glad to have an old metal container taken off their hands?

[IlonaM]

Just seen three Goldfinches on my seed feeder. Very colourful addition to today's visitors. Haven't seen any for a while.

[Mabaker]

For the first time in a while I heard a woodpecker yesterday morning in Dunstan's Heights, drilling away. It's very hard to work out where exactly it's located.

[sunbob]

I had a wonderful surprise today. Firstly I spotted a jay; then it flew to a nearby branch and turned out to be one of a pair and then I realised that just in front of them was a woodpecker! This was on the footpath through from the football club to the Greendale. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a picture!

[vladi]

Enjoy; jays are nice and colourful and not that common in London.

[heartblock]

Yes my partner saw jays on Greendale.. I love them, exotic looking and very bright ..as are all corvids.

[Nigello]

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tiny-forest-planting-day-peckham-rye-park-common-london-tickets-545961303957?utm_name=Climate

8/03 Tiny Forest planting on the Rye

[Han92-ED]

We have a family of 3 jays in The Gardens and they’re so beautiful to spot!

[vladi]

Went out in the garden yesterday and inadvertently disturbed a grey heron that was perching above

[Nigello]

I had two jays feeding and then a third, being fed on site by one of the other two (I’m guessing) last spring. They loved the suet balls/slabs. Not been back yet. :/

[IlonaM]

I'm extremely lucky with the variety of birds who visit my garden (not far from Horniman, in area full of trees and green space). Just seen the group of Redwings that have been feasting on ivy berries for the past week - back again!

[RichH]

I've just been watching seven Magpies having a prolonged and extremely loud, vocal set-to. There appeared to be three pairs plus one on its own, so I can make a fair guess at what the squabble may have been about. Or maybe it's a secret never to be told! :)

[Lynne]

We're getting large numbers of magpies too, far more than ever before. This may be a reason why we have far fewer small birds in out garden. Or this could be because the new neighbours cut down all the old apple trees when they moved in (sigh)

[Sue]

the new neighbours cut down all the old apple trees when they moved in (sigh)

 

😭😭😭

[Lynne]

And they've put in plastic grass

[Nigello]

2 x small fish (2”) in River Peck just at the bridge where the parkies’ office is, around 08:30, fighting the current very impressively. Sticklebacks or something else?