A Bit of Parakeet Cheek

Our monthly survey on 25 February got off to a great start when we spotted a woodpecker in trees along the Veda Road border. Yes, folks, it was a Great Spotted Woodpecker - a female as it lacked the male's red patch behind the head.

Later, we discovered that last year's woodpecker nest (see here) has been commandeered by a pair of parakeets who start breeding earlier than the other birds. If you walk due south from the front of the cafe with the tennis courts on your right, there is a traffic barrier and to the left of that an ash tree. The nest is in a hole (which the parakeets have widened a little) about 20 feet up the tree. To the best of our knowledge, we have only one pair of woodpeckers in the park and they generally choose a different site every year so war is unlikely to break out. But it's a bit of parakeet cheek. I bet they never asked...

The small birds were all very active as we would expect given it's their mating season. Great Tits were the most vocal, but Robins and Wrens were also singing loudly. While most of the tits and finches were flitting around, a Greenfinch sat still for quite some time in the top branches of a tree on upper Eastern Road, evidently enjoying the sunshine.

Counting the gulls on the cricket field was difficult as they came and went, but we estimate 50 Common Gull (yellow bill and legs) and 8 Black-headed Gull (Red bill and legs). Hilly Fields is one of the few sites in Lewisham where Common Gulls congregate in such numbers. Sue saw a pair of Collared Doves which is unusual in the park. And just when we thought it was all over and were refreshing ourselves outside the cafe, we saw a pair of Redwings in the trees next to the basketball court. These are thrushes which winter here from Scandinavia and have a patch of red under the wing, hence the name.

In addition to the birds already mentioned, we saw 12 Starlings, 9 House Sparrows, 6 Feral Pigeons, 5 Woodpigeons, 5 Crows and 5 Dunnocks, 3 Blackbirds, 2 each of Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Long-tailed Tit and Magpie and 1 each of Mistle Thrush and Goldfinch - making an impressive 23 species in total. Incidentally, 5 Dunnocks is a new record for Hilly Fields and two of them engaged in a mid-air courtship display which involved flapping their wings at each other. All in all, a busy and rewarding morning.