ED Nature Watch

[kiera]

Frog spawn has started to appear in my garden.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Saw a recently flattened frog as I cycled up Court Lane today.

Huge bumblebee apparently on a recce, carefully inspected indoors then left again.

Two blue tits chasing each other around the garden looking very much like a couple.

Magnolias halfway open and the trees that look like a winter cherry (not sure what they're called) are starting to scatter petals like confetti in my road.

It's like the bit in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when the snow starts to melt.

[louisemurray]

A pond full of mating amphibians in my garden

[Sue]

Has anybody else noticed loads of olives on olive trees (including very small ones in tubs) around ED?

Is this usual for this country, or is it yet another manifestation of climate change?

[Bes]

What a lovely day it was yesterday. cleared up some of my ivy and pruned back some of my overgrown plants. I can see my garden now. I have no olives noticed on my little tree.

[olly]

Anyone else spotted the male pheasant hanging around the back gardens of Underhill Road (even numbers)?

It's been popping into my garden on and off since yesterday!

[dimples]

How funny which end ?

[dimples]

Do you recognise these ducks I spotted at peckham rye park ? Their feathers were beautiful !

[olly]

dimples Wrote:

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> How funny which end ?

Belvoir Road end - on the other side.

[dimples]

Oooooo I'm belvoir road I'll keep a look out !

[red devil]

dimples Wrote:

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> Do you recognise these ducks I spotted at peckham

> rye park ? Their feathers were beautiful !

Egyptian Goose dimples. Hyde park has quite a few, could be blow ins from there... https://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/e/egyptiangoose/

[dimples]

Thanks for that red devil, I did have other photos but don't seem to be able to upload them ? !

[the-e-dealer]

Whats this butterfly in my front garden - it flew away before I could get closer !

[Sue]

the-e-dealer Wrote:

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> Whats this butterfly in my front garden - it flew

> away before I could get closer !

xxxxxxx

Looks like a Peacock? Butterfly, that is :)

ETA: http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?vernacular_name=Peacock

[the-e-dealer]

thanks looks like it!

[Sue]

We have been on a Dawn Chorus walk in Horniman Gardens this morning (starting at 5am!!!!)

It was led by a very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and - importantly - audible guy from a company with the excellent name of Bird Brain :)

Many birds are already nesting and some already have young.

We heard - and in theory are now able to identify the songs of - blackbird, robin, blue tit, great tit, goldcrest, wren, nuthatch, song thrush, dunnock, wood pigeon, green woodpecker, one of the spotted woodpeckers but can't remember which, redwing (I think), magpie, parakeet, crow.

Well obviously we already knew some of them .....

Well worth making the effort to drag ourselves out of bed and going out into the freezing cold dawn, though we did have to go back to bed after we'd had breakfast :)

Apparently there are at least thirty types of bird at various times in the gardens, probably more. Didn't hear any house sparrows but came back to see several in my garden :)

[Jenny1]

I saw a bee-fly for the first time in my garden in late April last year - and only knew what it was because someone else posted about them on the forum.

They're like tiny, woolly humming-birds. I saw my first of 2014 in the garden this morning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombyliidae

[fl0wer]

I thought they were gorgeous, until I discovered that some species need to live as parasites in other insects, before they emerge as winged adults.

First Orange Tip butterfly seen this week, flying alongside the trees of Camberwell Old Cemetery.

It tells you here what the larval food plants are, worth knowing so as not to be over zealous with the 'weeding'

http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/species-info.asp?vernacular=Orange-tip

[Jenny1]

That's pretty grim! But also very interesting. And I suppose it's a reminder that nature often functions in a fairly gruesome way.

Congratulations on the Orange Tip!

[phobic3000]

We have a greater spotted woodpecker that regularly feeds in our garden. It is quite shy but was brave enough to feed when I was sat outside yesterday afternoon.

[Jenny1]

What a great thing to be able to see in your own garden!

I'm excited because for the first time ever I have a clear view of a robin's nest from my sitting room window! They've nested in a hole some distance up a substantial tree trunk. Peeking out this morning I could see a substantial young fledgling sticking its head out eagerly - waiting to be fed. I'm being very careful not to go anywhere near.

I learnt recently that robins can nest two or three times in a season if the weather's good.

[Sue]

:)

[BrandNewGuy]

I took a very spring-like walk down Green Dale just now. In addition to all the different bright greens of the trees coming into leaf - poplar, oak, ash, birch, sycamore, willow and elder - there was a host of birds, visible or audible - starling, house sparrow, dunnock, blue tit, great tit, robin, wren, blackbird, mistle thrush, chaffinch, goldfinch, feral pigeon, wood pigeon, carrion crow, magpie, green woodpecker and greater spotted woodpecker. Not bad for a ten-minute stroll. We?re very lucky to live where we do.

[civilservant]

I love cutting through Green Dale on my way to Denmark Hill, but haven't ever seen/heard quite such a variety of birds. Maybe it's the Bank Holiday that brings them all out!

Speaking of nests - I leave the combings from our dog in the garden, and by the end of the day, it's all been taken to line nests. It's very funny seeing a tiny blue tit flying off carrying a ball of dog-fluff amost as bit as itself!

[tomdhu]

There seems to be a whole lot more chaffinches around this year, or is it just me? Having not seen one in our garden in almost 20 years, we see 2 in one day!

Tom