Friday, 3 January 2025

Hilly Fields Big Birdwatch 2025

 Our annual Hilly Fields Big Birdwatch event will be held on Sunday 26 January this year from 10.30-12.30. As usual, we will have a stall outside the cafe which will have bird ID sheets if you wish to go round the park on your own or you can use them on the guided walk which will start at 11.00. Our celebrated Big Blackboard will be there to display the results. 

Children will be able to make fatballs and bird feeders at the stall and these can be hung from trees in the park or on trees in your street or garden. Loop them over low hanging branches and you will be helping  birds to get through the winter.

 

We will also have copies of our 'indispensable' guide to the Birds of Hilly Fields with pen portraits of all species recorded in the park since 2007 and many photographs. These are priced at £5 and all money received goes to the Friends of Hilly Fields to help with nature conservation projects.

Our birdwatch is organised by the Friends of Hilly Fields, in conjunction with Glendale, the Lewisham Parks maintenance team. It is timed to coincide with the nationwide RSPB Bird Garden Birdwatch. In counting birds for this event, please remember the RSPB's golden rules:

(i) only count the maximum number of each species that you see at any one time (to avoid duplication); (ii) don't count birds that fly over without stopping - only birds within the park. 

By the way, back in November we were lucky enough to see a kestrel in the park – a rare event these days. It was perched in one of the horse chestnut trees in the north field, watching a flock of sparrows flitting about in some trees below. At one point, it left its perch and hovered in the air above them, but no sparrows were taken as far as we could see. 

We look forward to seeing you on 26 January.