Jump to content

Recommended Posts



Cheeky long tailed tits are back, which is nice.

 

Lucky you! My favourite birds!


I used to get quite a mix of birds in my tiny garden.


I haven't seen (or heard) a robin, blackbird, blue tit, great tit, goldfinch or wren for ages.


Less surprised about the wren, as they are very shy and hide in the climbers, so could still be there, but sorry about the others.


I do get a regular flock of sparrows, and some wood pigeons, but that's about it these days 😭.


I do put food out.

Often of a morning I hear a flock of starlings chattering in trees near Peckham Rye Park and there are sparrows to be heard in the various front garden hedges. I regularly see a robin and wren on the footpath through to the Greendale and in spring we get blue tits nesting (near the park).

I was walking down East Dulwich Grove yesterday afternoon and heard a lot of high pitched twittering.


I crossed the road and saw a load of long tailed tits in a tree.


As I was admiring them, a woman passing by asked what I was looking at.


When I told her, she said "oh, I get loads of them in my garden."


GRRRR 🤣 I never get any!

Have a squirrel (or squirrels) in the loft, bought a cage and baited it.


What to do if/when I catch one. They are vermin and by law have to be disposed of. I've killed one rat in my life, but not anything else classed as a sentient being.


What do do, what to do. I'll be going for the green squawky things and feral pigeons next.....

A newt has laid eggs on the floor of my very tiny shed. I don't know how long they have been there, as it's a while since I opened the shed door.


Surely this is a strange place. How can they survive if/when they hatch? I have a Belfast sink nearby with water and pond plants. Why would a newt go into a shed to lay eggs?


The floor on that side was a bit damp because the roof felt was dislodged (now put back) and there was damp newspaper on the floor (now removed)


Do the eggs need damp? Should I replace the damp paper?


The actual newt scurried away down a hole when I opened the shed door. That was how I realised they were newt eggs (never seen them before, had to Google).


Also, isn't it the wrong time of year? Will they survive the winter?


And what will happen when they hatch? There is no water in the shed 😭


In thirty years of living here, I have never seen a newt before, though I have frogs and a toad in the garden.

Usually we get 5-6 giant wood pigeons who arrive in September and scoff all the crab apples from our tree. None this year, which made me sad and wonder about bird flu (although a bonus for smaller birds who have been feeding there).


This morning a very skinny looking wood pigeon arrived on its own, and must have eaten its own body weight in crab apples. And now there are three of them! They’re not the most exciting birds but I am pleased to have them back.

We had a few resident wood pigeons, which were a bit of a pest, eating grass seed that I sowed and crapping in the bird bath. Sadly feral pigeons took their place, so in retrospect I now value them, and miss them even if I did need to clear the bird bath out frequently.


Current order of pests, feral pigeons, with squirels and green squawky things in equal second place, When food runs short the order will change.

I now seem to have attracted a whole bunch of things that look like thrushes. Are they likely to be fieldfare? I googled and that seems to be the closest looking thing, although the video said they were more October time visitors to towns. But then again the wood pigeons were late?

I've seen some Narcissi flowering, anyone else?


The coming frost will probably kill them off

 

Lots of flowering plants seem to have had their flowering schedule completely disrupted by the weird weather we now have.


This is bad news for insects (and indirectly birds, whose food sources for their young are also disrupted)

I think the new occupants of my tree are indeed redwings. Here’s a pic.


Def change in visitors this year, usually pigeons and parakeets have eaten all the fruit before the leaves fall off the tree, this year lots of small birds (tits, sparrows etc)

340D529B-589D-460A-A61F-6C3ECD578F8C.thumb.jpeg.b7c5ff19e4dd48e7e7f9922a5cbc912c.jpeg

Bird picture

  • 2 weeks later...
A large grey heron has just spent 5 minutes or more perched on the very crest of house close by (with a very small pond in its garden, mainly with newts in it, if anything). Perched in trees nearby were a bevy of green parakeets. I would never have expected to see this when I moved in, over 30 years ago. East Dulwich has certainly changed significantly over that period.

There was a flock of redwings in my garden today, I don't think I've ever seen one before.

 

Our Wildlife Group say it's a redwing winter - they have come here in numbers as the Scandinavian rowan berry crop failed this year.

 

Amazing they know where to come to find berries 😮 - all that way 😮

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • I remember halfpennies. Farthings had gone by my time. 2/6 (half a crown) that looked very similar to 2s.  
    • Looks like moths have been at it!
    • "They sold everyone, directly or indirectly, on the notion that Covid, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine had nothing to do with the sorry state of the UK and that it was 14 years of Tory rule and Truss' nightmare budget that was the source of all the country's woes. " This simply isn't true. Global issues all play their own parts (as they do with other countries) but the UK govt had  been especially abject for years. Improvements could not be made with them in power. That's not to say everything is all roses when they go To claim parties shouldn't try and sell themselves in an election is absurd - but if labour did overpromise or dig into specifics (which they partly couldn't because they didn't have their hands on the books) then we live in a country where a population and media is happy to punch on them and relect the shabby last govt I mean if any argument I made was supported by some posters I would rethink it but thats just me
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...