ED Nature Watch

[Sue]

I too have a query - about robins!

There were two in my garden today apparently quite happily co-existing.

I thought robins fought over territory, so would they be a pair? It seems a strange time of year as surely they are not nesting? I quite often have a robin in the garden but I've never seen two together before.

[DulwichFox]

In a mild winter, robins start courtship in January, but the breeding season normally begins in March.

The birds pair only for the duration of the breeding season.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/r/robin/nesting.aspx

Foxy

[Applespider]

You can search on Southwark's website to see if the cherry or the ash has a preservation order on it. And if so, what permission was granted. Recently my neighbours' very large chestnut came down over two days because of honey fungus. It came down before the consultation was over.

When the trees at the rear of my flat were threatened (random blokes starting to cut down quite a few) the local councillors (College) were brilliant and helped to get an emergency preservation order on all the trees. Might be worth speaking to yours if you are v concerned over the ash.

[KirstyH]

Thanks Applespider - I'll see what the Council have to say on this area. It doesn't seem right to have to get planning permission to change buildings but then to be able to cut trees down. To be honest I doubt these are 'special' trees that have preservation orders on them, they were just full of action all the time. The cherry had loads of tits, once or twice long-tailed tits, goldfinches, an ever present wood pigeon or two just staying on and a phenomenal display of blossom like a heavy snow fall (which I monitored the dates over over the years to try and understand seasonal change). Anyway, it'll grow back and I'll get over it.

[kiera]

KirstyH, you can ask the council to put a Tree Preservation Order on a tree, but there are certain criteria which have to be satisfied - the necessary information, including who to write to, is on the council's website. The Tree Officers are not enthusiastic about creating new TPOs as it's a lot of work for them, involving a lengthy legal process. The tree should be of amenity value, but it doesn't have to be an unusual species. There are TPOs on trees in back gardens and even TPOs on some of their own trees, but, last time I checked, Southwark council had not given any details about protected trees on their website - if you want to know whether or not a particular tree is protected, you have to ask a tree officer to check.

[JackieO]

There were two nuthatches in Camberwell Old Cemetery this afternoon. I also heard a woodpecker calling.

[ruffers]

There were two greater spotted woodpeckers in the gardens between Wood Vale & Underhill Road today, beautiful birds.

[Sue]

I have seen the two robins together again in my garden, and I'm sure they must be a pair.

I'm assuming things have started early due to the mild Autumn - there are some normally spring flowering shrubs already flowering locally.

Just hope any baby birds aren't zapped by the cold (probably will be though??) :(

[Wiggle]

Egyptian geese on rye park lake this afternoon

[Sue]

My sister thinks she saw a Blackcap in my garden this morning.

I thought she must mean a Great Tit, which appear quite often, but she says it deffo wasn't.

Anybody else seen one locally? I'm jealous :)

[BrandNewGuy]

It's possible, but as you say, possibly a great tit ? or more likely a coal tit, which is brownish like a blackcap. Although there are blackcaps (particularly Sydenham Woods) locally and they have taken to over-wintering here when they used to migrate south.

 

[Sue]

Yes, I thought she must have seen a Great Tit or a Coal Tit, but she looked at photos on a bird ID app she has and says it didn't look like either of those and deffo had no bib....

Also very distinctive format (?) of cap.

[wolis]

Yes we had one in our garden yesterday morning around 10 am . It was interested in the bird feeder but wary of the Great Tits feeding and flew off. Not seen one before in this garden. We are in the Tyrrell Rd./ Barry Rd. area.

[Maple]

We have a pair visiting our garden this winter. The female has a rusty brown cap. I've never seen them on the feeders, they prefer the berries in the garden and often use the water bath. They have a beautiful song in the spring.

[Sue]

Excellent! It probably was a blackcap, then!

Sadly on the same day though, there appeared a large amount of what look like pigeon feathers in the garden - anybody seen any birds of prey around? Seems maybe more likely than a cat?? I've only seen one in my garden once, and that was a few years back now.

May have been a youngish pigeon as most of the feathers are small, white and fluffy, with a few larger pigeon-ish ones.

Or would a bird of prey have just flown off with the whole pigeon, so there wouldn't be any feathers left?

Sad topic, sorry :(

[Alex K]

Hawks pluck away the breast plumage (small, white, fluffy) and eat the pectoral muscle as well as, from below, the liver, heart, and lights under the eaves of the ribs and breastbone. The tail- and wingfeathers, recognisably "pigeon", may be with the rest of the corpse in a neighbour's back garden.

[red devil]

I've seen a local moggy with a half-dead pigeon in it's mouth, gripping it by it's broken neck, blood dripping from it's visible fangs, feathers everywhere...''Oh, my Tiddles doesn't chase birds''...yeah, right

[Sue]

Alex K Wrote:

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

> Hawks pluck away the breast plumage (small, white,

> fluffy) and eat the pectoral muscle as well as,

> from below, the liver, heart, and lights under the

> eaves of the ribs and breastbone. The tail- and

> wingfeathers, recognisably "pigeon", may be with

> the rest of the corpse in a neighbour's back

> garden.

:(

[red devil]

The sap is rising this morning...Two Magpies gathering nesting material...a male Robin 'courtship feeding' his fancy (apparently it's the bird world equivalent of the Milk Tray man)...Spring is here!

[BrandNewGuy]

It certainly is ? saw the first butterlfies of the year yesterday. A brimstone in the garden and a small tortoiseshell along the road.

[panda boy]

Second sighting of a little owl hunting on Peckham Rye today.

Tremendously exciting...

[omz]

Hmm

[Sue]

Eh, omz? Have I missed something?

After having a go at people who have mirrors in their gardens, sadly yesterday I watched a sparrow three times flying into my new kitchen window before it gave up :(

Not sure what to do as I don't think I want a hawk window sticker looming over my kitchen - anybody got any ideas?

If I put a bird feeder on the window, would that just make matters worse? I'm worried how many more there might have been when I'm not there :( It's not even a very clean window at the moment :(

If a bird had a choice between a kitchen and a garden, you wouldn't think it would choose to fly in the direction of the kitchen, would you???

[kiera]

Sue. - the bird may have seen a reflection of your garden in your window. I picked up a dead young blackbird which had killed itself flying into the glass at Peckham library. When I stood outside and looked at the window from the bird's perspective, I saw the reflection of a tree. Similarly,at home,we experienced a blue tit attacking a reflection of itself in a window. I think it's only in a certain light that the window acts as a mirror - probably when it's in full sun. Might a venetian blind reduce the mirror effect?

[kiera]

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