July Bird Survey

Our July bird survey took place on the 31st - a cloudy day with fleeting glimpses of the sun. We began at the lower Vicars Hill entrance and immediately heard and saw some Long-tailed Tits in the trees there - probably no more than three, but a welcome sight. Sue also spotted three Swifts soaring overhead. These  incredible flyers return home earlier than Martins and Swallows and will probably be back in Africa by the time we do our end-of-August survey.

Stock photo: Common Swift

Moving on around the park, we saw and heard a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, heard a Mistle Thrush's alarm call, saw a flock of 7 Goldfinches around Eastern Road (including some juveniles which don't yet have the red heads of the adult - see photo below), a flock of 11 Woodpigeons on the Eastern field and 4 House Sparrows in their usual playground - the hedgerow bordering the back gardens of Cliffview Road.

Juvenile Goldfinch: black and yellow wings but no red face or black crown as in the adult [Photo: Tom]

In addition, we saw and/or heard 3 Blue Tits and small numbers of Great Tits, Wrens, Robins, Feral Pigeons, Crows, 1 Magpie (much sorrow!), Blackbirds and at the very end of the survey...a pair of Coal Tits, one seen and one heard by Sue in the Vicars Hill border trees. The Coal Tit is a quite uncommon bird on Hilly Fields, last recorded on our Bird Track pages in 2010. However, we may have overlooked it in the past as they can sound like Great Tits, hang upside down like Blue Tits and mix with Long-tailed Tits!

Stock photo: Coal Tit

In all, a total of 16 species were recorded which is not bad for the quiet summer months. The most noticeable absentees were Starlings, which seem to have moved elsewhere for a while, and Ring-necked Parakeets though those little darlings/birds/pests (as you prefer) still come and go on a daily basis.

Big Garden Birdwatch: How Do We Compare?

The RSPB has published the results of its national Bird Garden Birdwatch survey, held over the weekend of 28/29 January 2012. We held our own "big garden" survey on Hilly Fields on 29 January and a total of 23 species was identified by all who took part. It is interesting to compare the top 23 birds in the national survey with our list:

  Hilly Fields Survey                                National Survey

  1. Starling                                                    1. House Sparrow

  2. House Sparrow                                      2. Starling

  3. Black-headed Gull                                 3. Blue Tit

4. Common Gull 4. Blackbird

5. Goldfinch 5. Chaffinch

  6. Ring-necked Parakeet                          6. Woodpigeon

  7. Blackbird                                                 7. Goldfinch 

  8. Woodpigeon                                            8. Great Tit

  9. Blue Tit                                                   9. Robin

  9. Greenfinch                                             10. Collared Dove     

  9. Magpie                                                   11. Dunnock

 10. Carrion Crow                                       12. Magpie

 10. Chaffinch                                              13. Long-tailed Tit 

 10. Feral Pigeon                                        14. Greenfinch

 10. Great Tit                                              15. Feral Pigeon

 10. Jay                                                        16. Coal Tit

 10. Long-tailed Tit                                    17. Jackdaw

 10. Robin                                                    18. Carrion Crow

 11. Mistle Thrush                                      19. Wren

 11. Wren                                                     20. Common Gull

 12. Dunnock                                               21. Pheasant 

 12. Great Spotted Woodpecker               22. Song Thrush

 12. Pied Wagtail                                         23. Bullfinch 

There is a 73% match between the two lists, so - as you might expect - Hilly Fields does not differ enormously as a bird habitat from gardens and parks across the UK. Our list is skewed slightly by the winter timing of the survey when there are flocks of gulls on Hilly Fields and the Starling population is at its height. There also seems to have been a larger number of House Sparrows on HF that day than usual (16 were counted - the norm is between 4 and 8).

The six birds which are on our list but not in the national Top 23 are: Black-headed Gull (a very common winter bird in London), Great Spotted Woodpecker (no. 24 on the national list!), Jay, Mistle Thrush, Pied Wagtail and Ring-necked Parakeet. The pesky Parakeet is still predominantly a Southern England bird and, in London, most common south of the river.

The six birds which are in the national Top 23 but not on our list are: Bullfinch, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Jackdaw, Pheasant and Song Thrush. These can all be seen in the London area with varying degrees of frequency. Locally, Song Thrushes can be seen/heard in Brockley Cemetery and Brookmill Park, Jackdaws in Greenwich Park (when not closed for the Olympics) and I've seen a Collared Dove on top of a bus shelter in Hilly Fields Crescent but forgot to record the date!

The national RSPB survey has drawn attention to the 79% decline in Starling numbers recorded since the Big Garden Birdwatch began in 1979. In fact, both the House Sparrow and the Starling - despite still being the two most recorded birds in our gardens and parks - have declined so much numerically that they are now on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Hopefully, both populations will at least stabilize.

June Bird Survey

Friday 29th June: a cloudy morning with spots of rain, occasional glimmers of sun and a strong wind. The wind made it difficult to hear the birds and perhaps they weren't bothering to sing much anyway. It was also hard to see the small birds as all the trees are in full leaf. In short, we saw and/or heard only 13 species during a two hour survey and that's the lowest number recorded this year, down from 23 species in Jan, 22 in Feb, 16 in March and April and 14 in May. Crap weather may have something to do with it (wettest April-June quarter since 1910 etc.), but also the moulting season is beginning which means some birds will be keeping a low profile as they shed their feathers. 


The highest number by far was a flock of 20+ Woodpigeons foraging on the East field. After that, 4 Carrion Crow, 4 Blackbirds, 4 House Sparrows, 3 Starlings, 3 Feral Pigeons, 2 Magpies, 2 Goldfinches, 2 Wrens and 1 each of Pied Wagtail, Robin, Great Tit and Chaffinch. The Pied Wagtail was hopping about the bowling green only a few feet away from two Glendale workers who were mowing the grass, though it eventually flew away. From previous observations, the green is becoming a regular haunt for this attractive bird which feeds mainly on insects including flies, midges and caterpillars.

Stock photo - not the bowling green!

No sign of the Great Spotted Woodpeckers (see recent posts), but we did see a fledgling Carrion Crow following its mum or dad around near the cricket pitch, sometimes opening its mouth in hope of food. It's plumage at this stage is mainly dark brown rather than the familiar all-black of the adult. A few of the smaller birds we saw did look rather disheveled (though not this Crow) which may be due to the strains of producing and feeding their needy broods.

In the cherry tree just to the south of the newly opened cafe, we saw four blackbirds flitting around and pecking at the cherries. Easy to see the speckled breast of the female in the pic. below even if the camera is slightly out of focus. 

After that, we treated ourselves to a much-needed coffee!

RSPB House Sparrow Count

This week the RSPB - in partnership with the London Wildlife Trust - launched its "Cockney Sparrow" count. It is asking Londoners to spend an hour or so between now and 12 July counting sparrows and recording the highest number seen at any one time. The count can be done anywhere in London - in your garden, on the street, in the park, near your workplace, wherever you like. There is a simple form available which should be completed and sent in - see Downloads on the right hand side of the following web page: http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/313435-cockney-sparrow-count. The RSPB emphasises that it does want "nil returns", ie. not seeing any sparrows is just as important to the survey as seeing them.

'Peckers Progress

I'm sure you all noticed the deliberate mistake in my last post, calling the young woodpecker a "fledgling". As it was still being fed in the nest by its parents, it should really have been called a "nestling" - or perhaps just a "chick". A young bird is not a fledgling until it has fully grown its flight feathers and can flutter about a bit in the great outdoors. Just keeping you on your toes.

I saw a chick appear at the hole again on both 4 and 5 June, but since then no sightings of the young (I'm being positive and assuming that there is more than one) and no sound coming from the nest. At sundown on 9 June, however, Sue saw an adult Great Spotted Woodpecker fly into the hole. As the chick I saw looked very healthy, we are fairly confident that they have now fledged, but perhaps the family is still returning to the nest at dusk to roost.

Not looking too thrilled to see us (photo by Ruby)

At this stage of their lives, the fledglings will still be around the park somewhere and will still be being fed bill-to-bill by their parents. They should be easily identifiable by the red crown which will not disappear until their first moult in the autumn. Please let us know if you see them. This excellent You Tube video clip shows a fledgling being fed.

May Bird Survey

The late May heatwave was still in progress when Sue and I did our monthly bird survey on Tuesday 29th. The park was looking good in the sunshine even though all the beautiful white blossom on the Hawthorns and Horse Chestnuts has disappeared. The birds were lying low at first, so much so that we started to count the Speckled Wood butterflies instead, except there were too many of them!

Then we had a surprise - a constant high-pitched noise heard behind Prendergast School turned out to be coming from a hole high up in some kind of ornamental oak tree. The arrival at the hole of a male Great Spotted Woodpecker and then soon after a female confirmed that we had found a nest with hungry woodpecker fledglings. They couldn't be seen from ground level, so numbers are uncertain but we will be keeping an eye on the nest. There are normally between five to seven eggs in a GSW brood, but eggs and fledglings can be taken by other birds while the parents are out hunting for food. While we were there, the female was seen at a tree some thirty yards away, presumably digging insects out of the bark.

Male and female GSWs. Female has no red patch on back of  head, but does have red under the tail like the male

Sue also found a Blue Tit nest in a dead tree near the tennis courts. One of the parents was in attendance while we watched. Apart from that excitement, we noted a slight revival in the number of Starlings, ten being spotted together at one point. Otherwise the following birds were seen and/or heard, all in small numbers: Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Magpie, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Wren, Robin and Ring-necked Parakeet.

A few days earlier (25th), Sue spotted three Pied Wagtails on the bowling green and then witnessed a Sparrowhawk swoop down on them! All three appeared to evade capture.

Woodpecker Update: the picture below was taken by my daughter on Saturday afternoon (2 June) and shows one of the fledglings peeping out of the hole. The crimson crown on top of its head will disappear with its first moult. Hopefully, it's not an only child...

Lewisham Gardens

I have added a link on this website to a new local gardening site - LewishamGardens. LG has only been going for a few months but already contains a vast amount of advice and information on local gardening resources, gardening in general and associated topics.

Did you know, for example, that there are more than 60 community gardens in Lewisham and "20 bee keepers in Brockley alone" (I know, it's a hive of activity - thank you). It has forums on different subjects (including Wildlife), lots of photographs and is also a "social network" site to which anyone can contribute if registered. All that and - ahem -an article by me on Garden Birds. What more could you possibly ask for?

Lewisham Gardens is regularly updated with all the latest local gardening news. It's obviously a labour of love run by enthusiasts, so if you're a keen gardener or even a wannabe gardener, head over there and check it out. It deserves your support.