ED Nature Watch

[Bumpkin]

We had a bit of excitement in the garden last week when what at first I thought was a large thrush, came out of our hedge, caught a sparrow & took off with it.  Pretty certain it was a sparrow hawk.  Still plenty of sparrows.  

[malumbu]

Had two wowsy moments.  Saw a kingfisher in the UK, I'd seen flashes of blue down rivers but never properly caught one.  Fortunately someone pointed it out to me, although this was WWT Arundel not SE22

But..... I saw this massive bird fly off yesterday morning, from previous discussions it is most likely a sparrow hawk and from time to time we have a small mass of pigeon feathers in the garden.

Sparras have gone but small group of starlings still around

[Veronicaveronica]

Quite large….

[RichH]

I've been using the Cornell Lab "Bird ID" app since @MrsR suggested it in July.  I must say that it has proven to be accurate and fast to correctly identify bird calls.  So much so that I made a bit of a game out of it based on who could identify the bird call first; the app or me.  Currently it's 11-8 in favour of the app 😞

However, in just one morning a couple of days ago two complete anomalies appeared in the app.  A Black Redstart and a Spotted Flycatcher.  Whilst not entirely impossible, I suspect the presence of these birds here to be extremely unlikely.

Has anyone ever actaully seen either of these two birds in ED?  Might the app be correct?

Depending on your answers/observations I could be about to go another two goals down 🙂

[Sue]

2 hours ago, RichH said:

I've been using the Cornell Lab "Bird ID" app since @MrsR suggested it in July.  I must say that it has proven to be accurate and fast to correctly identify bird calls.  So much so that I made a bit of a game out of it based on who could identify the bird call first; the app or me.  Currently it's 11-8 in favour of the app 😞

However, in just one morning a couple of days ago two complete anomalies appeared in the app.  A Black Redstart and a Spotted Flycatcher.  Whilst not entirely impossible, I suspect the presence of these birds here to be extremely unlikely.

Has anyone ever actaully seen either of these two birds in ED?  Might the app be correct?

Depending on your answers/observations I could be about to go another two goals down 🙂

I use BirdNet, and if it's not 100% sure it's got it right, it tells you!

Also, you can feed back to the app if it definitely got it wrong!

It does sound unlikely that those birds would be seen round here, but as you say, not entirely impossible.

[Lynne]

Just been watching three squirrels on a neighbour's roof. They ran round and round and up and down for ages. Playing? I know nothing about squirrels' behaviour. They kept going under the guttering, I suspect they might be living in the roof, we had a nest in our roof once and very expensive it was to get it cleared.

[h3+]

Is anyone else seeing bats? I live near goose green and have seen a solitary bat at dusk in my garden 

[malumbu]

Don't catch them as by law they have to be killed.  Best to get them in a black plastic bag and hit them on the head with a spade.  Maximum two hits otherwise it is inhumane.  They are an invasive species that have caused serious damage to our ecosystem.

Sorry that was about grey squirrels.

Went on a lovely bat walk last week at Nunhead cemetery.  We occasionally see bats in our street, probably due to proximity to Horniman Gardens 

[jazzer]

I believe it is ILLEGAL to kill bats, they are a protected species. 

 

"In Britain all bat species and their roosts are legally protected, by both domestic and international legislation."

[malumbu]

I was talking about grey squirrels, someone posted about bats at the same time hence I added another paragraph to clarify.

Vermin/invasive species in order of my dislike:

Squirels

Rats

Feral pigeons

Canada geese

Green squawky things

I'd only kill the top two if in the house.  I'm nice to house mice, love spiders, tolerate wasps, try not to kiil ants, and depends on how much damage they are doing can live with snails and slugs.  At ease with most species that have long since become native such as starlings. 

And foxes with their supernatural sounds at night don't bother me either.

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by malumbu

[Sue]

On 15/09/2023 at 21:51, h3+ said:

Is anyone else seeing bats? I live near goose green and have seen a solitary bat at dusk in my garden 

Yes, I saw a  bat in my garden at dusk a few weeks back.

Only the second time I've seen one there in the over thirty years I've lived here, but obviously I'm not permanently sitting in my garden!

I live off North Cross Road.

I do garden for wildlife, and there is a lot of greenery in the garden (apart from under the bird feeders where wood pigeons have scratched up all the plants 😢) , but I have no idea what attracted the bat - possibly flying nocturnal insects?

Edited September 16, 2023 by Sue
Adding info

[DomnusPullum]

Saw a rather handsome pale tussock moth caterpillar in dulwich park.

[Nigello]

No bats, alas, but resurgence of robins and tits/blue tits

[malumbu]

I harvested my first ever hazel nuts, not really worth it by the time you have shelled, skinned and roasted them. And the danger of leaving shell behind for deteriorating teeth.

Gold finches going crazy this year, I expect they had the full three clutches....

[sunbob]

I've just seen a pair of youngish looking Egyptian Geese walking on the common (opposite Cafe G).

I wonder if they're siblings from the last brood or a couple.

 

[malumbu]

I've seen a lot of water today.  On the subject of water I'm clearing out excess pond plants and have, for free, oxygenator, brook lime and other plants

[malumbu]

After seeing possible evidence of sparrow hawks in the garden, and what appeared to be a bird of prey that flew off quickly at last I saw definitely a sparrow hawk on Monday in Dulwich Park.  Thought what is that pigeon hovering, then oh wait a sec.

I know it is not rare round here but I was excited.

[Lynne]

I know it's not ED, but it was a pleasant surprise to see a kite circling above the A10 in Enfield this morning. I didn't know they'd got this far into London

[Penguin68]

I have just seen, at lunch time today, on my raised ED terrace, a large dog fox with a large (dead) grey squirrel in its mouth - it then took it to the middle of the lawn to start on it. I have never seen a fox with a squirrel before, indeed I assumed that an alert fox wouldn't be able to catch a squirrel in a well-treed garden. I know they take mice and rats but I thought squirrels would be too nimble. Clearly wrong. Presumably this was ambush predation. In 35 years of living here this was a first.

[tiddles]

Saw 2 woodpeckers in the same tree today on the rye - both had red heads. Rather excited!

[Sue]

2 hours ago, tiddles said:

Saw 2 woodpeckers in the same tree today on the rye - both had red heads. Rather excited!

Pair Of Great Spotted woodpeckers?

Lucky you!

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/great-spotted-woodpecker

 

5 hours ago, Penguin68 said:

I have just seen, at lunch time today, on my raised ED terrace, a large dog fox with a large (dead) grey squirrel in its mouth - it then took it to the middle of the lawn to start on it. I have never seen a fox with a squirrel before, indeed I assumed that an alert fox wouldn't be able to catch a squirrel in a well-treed garden. I know they take mice and rats but I thought squirrels would be too nimble. Clearly wrong. Presumably this was ambush predation. In 35 years of living here this was a first.

Maybe the squirrel was injured, ill or already dead?

[dresswaves]

Woodpecker in the garden & heard one in Peckham Rye Park last week

[RichH]

23 hours ago, Penguin68 said:

...I have never seen a fox with a squirrel before, indeed I assumed that an alert fox wouldn't be able to catch a squirrel in a well-treed garden. Presumably this was ambush predation. In 35 years of living here this was a first.

 

17 hours ago, Sue said:

Maybe the squirrel was injured, ill or already dead?

Last year I watched a squirrel foraging in my back garden getting ever closer to a fox that was curled up nearby.  The squirrel clearly had no idea that the fox was there.  The fox, on the other hand, was very aware of the squirrel.  The squirrel got to within about a foot of the fox before the latter struck... but the squirrel, with lightning fast reactions and an astonishing burst of speed, managed to escape by sprinting the twenty or so feet to the nearest tree and shooting up the trunk like a rocket.

This was very unlike another scenario about six or seven years ago when a clearly sick and very disorientated squirrel was caught by a fox at around 2 O'Clock in the morning.  A few days later I spotted another squirrel lying dead in the road outside.  I'd guess that there was a disease of some sort spreading through the local squirrel population as there was certainly an over-abundance of them here at the time.

[ponderwoman]

Today in Peckham Park, Egyptian goose honking at the seagulls as she was guarding at least 6 fairly newly hatched goslings. Hope they have better luck this year.

Woodpeckers drumming their territorial challenges.

Loads of sticklebacks. Very fat tailless squirrel.

[ponderwoman]

Four Egyptian goslings gone already. These Geese need to graze and/or have grains etc to eat.

No chance of grazing within the lake railings so no doubt the mouse size goslings are great dog sport when out on the greens. Consider taking wheat, oats lentils and fresh grass clippings to support them if that isn't in contradiction to the anti rat rules.