ED Nature Watch

[Sue]

Only me! - that's so interesting, because for me it's the other way round.

The fat balls get eaten the most, particularly by a family of Great Tits.

After that the peanuts.

I have some sort of seed mix, can't remember what, which has only just begun to be eaten by what looked like a baby sparrow, but not sure - keep meaning to look up whether they have speckled breasts when young.

And the niger - not at all :-S

I have Blackbirds, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Robins, Wood Pigeons, Sparrows.

Used to have a Wren and also Starlings, but haven't seen either lately.

Never seen a finch of any kind nor a Jay in my garden here, but would love to (hence the niger for the finches - I live in hope!).

My favourite garden visitors are Woodpeckers and Long Tailed Tits, but I don't think it's likely I'll get either where I live now. I used to get Mum, Dad and Baby Great Spotted Woodpecker coming down to the peanuts.

The most unusual bird I ever saw from my window was a Tree Creeper, but that was when I lived on a farm.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Sure I heard house martins today, but I didn't see them.

[Sue]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

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> Sure I heard house martins today, but I didn't see

> them.

xxxxxx

I heard a (very annoying!) bird yesterday which sounded like the squeaky wheel sound of the Great Tit only very very very much louder, interspersed with what sounded like radio interference :))

Never heard it before, and it went on for ages!!

I took my life in my hands by standing on a rickety garden chair to try to see the bird, which sounded like it was in a garden a couple of houses down, but no luck :))

[Only me!]

House Martins have been seen.

Sunday i think ..... quite low & only 1 or 2.

But their distinctive call was in evidence.

I believe (but stand to be corrected...)that their altitude is temperature dependant.

Hot days create stronger thermals that carry their small insect dinner higher into the air column.

& on cooler days with the thermals weaker, lunch stays nearer the ground .....

[bonniebird]

We don't have any sparrows near us :'( and over the Rye I have seen one pair only but heard a few more, when I was a child they were everywhere :)

[Dulwichmudlark]

Robin keeps ducking in and out of chicken coop for food smart little bird

[maxxi]

A group of 8-12 swifts screeching and diving around last evening about 7-ish

[Sue]

Hey, I went out tonight to water the garden (with a can - many of them :-S ) and saw FROGS in my tub! There are at least three of them!

Can these be ones that hatched from tadpoles last year? I thought they disappeared and didn't come back to their place of birth for a few years???

[lousmith]

how big are they? last year's frogs will be still pretty small like a monkey nut or smaller. The hot weather will bring them to water. They won't be ready to breed for a few years yet.Still got your plant trays btw, can't remember your house no. I'll drop them off if you pm me.

On the subject of sparrows, i've got a cheeky pair who patrol the pond plants looking for the delicate newly emerged damsel and dragonflies for their brood. They,re really deadly at it, not at all afraid to tread water whilst intently looking, They even take the mature ones on the wing. I'm pleased to see them, but they are cheeky!

[Whittler]

Pickle Wrote:

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> We got a surprise last night to have a bat

> delivered to us in the sitting room by our cat

> :-S

>

> It was very small (body about 4 or 5cm long, with

> a wingspan of 20cm or so), and as it was curled up

> we couldn't work out what it was. Admittedly it

> caused a grown man and woman to scream when it

> then stretched its wings out and flapped!

>

> It seems unharmed and was released into a tree at

> the back of our garden. A lesson for me, I didn't

> realise there were bats in the UK!

http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/uk_bats.html

Check out the link above - there are a lot of bats in the UK and i can vouch for the fact that there are quite a few in this area!

There's a big roost in the disused railway tunnel in Sydenham Woods and early dusk at this time of year we usually get to see them in some numbers flying round the houses up here near the Horniman...

[Sue]

lousmith Wrote:

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> how big are they? last year's frogs will be still

> pretty small like a monkey nut or smaller. The hot

> weather will bring them to water. They won't be

> ready to breed for a few years yet.Still got your

> plant trays btw, can't remember your house no.

> I'll drop them off if you pm me.

>

>

xxxxxx

Some of them are quite big. They don't look full size though.

One is about monkey nut size, and very clearly much smaller than the others.

I wonder where they can have come from if they're not last year's?

I had damsel flies in my garden yesterday and today - possibly hatched from the larvae (not the right word) that came with the sadly eaten frogspawn (R.I.P.)

[wolis]

Think you'll find they are swifts. Getting rarer over here now because of lack of places to build nests - eves etc. Sure sign that summer is here. Fascinating birds - they never land except to rear the young and they migrate down to Africa and apparently always come back to the nest area they were born in. We had a short holiday in Majorca two weeks ago -lots of swifts there and sparrows. Would recommend Soller in N.W. Majorca with it's old wooden trains and trams. Lot of walkers and cyclists and no clubbers!

[DawnSE22]

Wolis - if you were commenting on the house martin post - what makes you so certain that they weren't house martins? I regularly see them migrating over Ed in spring and autumn and birds from the Dulwich pop also use Dulwich Park to feed.

[lofty]

We saw the male heron in dulwich park the other weekend. He grabbed a baby rat out the reeds and dispatched it by drowning and crushing....lovely. The rat was squealing it's head off. Nature at it's finest.

[lousmith]

I saw the very thing on you tube here:

An adult rat is obviously more of a challenge and the outcome is touch and go. I won't spoil the end.

Pelican eats pigeon is worth a watch too.

[minder]

Now I know they're not just watching for fish in my local park! Wouldn't have known a heron could eat a rat or a pidgeon.

[wolis]

Dawn 22. If you go on to the RSPB site and chose bird identifier and listen to the House Martin & then the Swift, you'll see why I think they are Swifts. Cheers

[Sue]

lousmith Wrote:

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> I saw the very thing on you tube here:

>

> An adult rat is obviously more of a challenge and

> the outcome is touch and go. I won't spoil the

> end.

> Pelican eats pigeon is worth a watch too.

xxxxxxx

OMG :))

[DawnSE22]

Wolis - Why do I need to go to the RSPB site when I know the difference between a swift and house martin call? 2 posters said that they saw or heard house martins, just because swifts breed in the area it does not mean that they didn't see house martins on migration. Although, I am presuming that people commenting on a nature thread would know the difference between the 2 birds, as other than feeding at around the same altitude they are pretty distinctive.

[wolis]

OK . Over Barry Rd area we have swifts. You have House Martins.

[DawnSE22]

Wolis - why do you keep missing the point? Did I say any where that house martins breed in Ed?? Er, no. What I did say is that the other posters may have seen house martins migrating over Ed as I have. How can you comment accurately when you weren't there and they did not give a description? Anyway, if I wanted to check out a bird that I wasn't familiar with I would look at my volumes of Birds of the Western Paleartic and not the RSPB website. You did make one good point though, swifts are declining and need all the help they can get from homeowners - eg leave existing nest holes in place or put up nest boxes at least 5m from the ground. I've put a box up this year and plan to install 4 more when we have some repairs to our roof. Playing swift calls will help to attract them to new nest places. Check out Swift Conservation's website for more info.

[Only me!]

Boxes for Swift/House Martins/Swallows (Phew think I got away with that one....) sound like a good idea.

I've not seen any for sale, the ones available seem to be mainly for smaller birds, Blue Tits or similar, any suggestions on where we can buy some locally?

[DawnSE22]

Hi Only Me

Yes swifts can use nest boxes, while house martins and swallows use nest cups that look like their natural mud nests. It would only be worth putting up swift boxes though as the others do not breed in ed, although there are breeding house martins on Burbage Rd in Dulwich.

You won't be able to buy them locally, but can get them online. The cheapest and lightest option would be a wooden box for about ?13 plus p&p or you can buy schwegler ones from Jacobi Jayne for about ?55. These are made from woodcrete so are heavier and have a 25 year guarantee. Have a look at the shopping page on the swift conservation website for links. I volunteer for swift conservation and offer advice to home owners in South London about the different boxes and where to site them etc so you are welcome to pm me if needed.

[Only me!]

This is the culprit!

Fluffy tail?

Hardly surprising given how many Sunflower seeds he's tucked away!

[Sue]

Only me! Wrote:

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> This is the culprit!

> Fluffy tail?

> Hardly surprising given how many Sunflower seeds

> he's tucked away!

xxxxxx

Does he walk the tightrope to get to them?!