Kestrel unperturbed

Cllr Mike Keogh emailed me some photos he took a couple of days ago of the Kestrel in the meadow. Mike wrote:

"Have you seen the kestrel at the bottom of the school to bottom Montague Ave path, on lamppost just before trees. It is in and out of the meadow ... and hangs out on top of lighting column looking quite scruffy and unperturbed by passers-by."

This photo shows the Kestrel on a lamppost on the path near Prendergast School, which is in the background.

Thanks Mike.

The Kestrel's back (& me too!)

After a few weeks absence on holiday in the Scottish Highlands and then essential maintenence around the house and garden I am, at last, back to the normal routine.

I must mention (because this is very rare) that the Highlands were dry and very hot: up to 30 degC. and only one rainy day. There were plenty of Osprey nearby, one even took a fish just 100m from our apartment, and no shortage of House Sparrows.

For the past few weeks Chris, from the RSPB, has been surveying Cliffview Road and this side of Hilly Fields weekly instead of monthly. When he was here on Thursday, Chris told me the weekly visits have been very successful, from the point of view of the London House Sparrow Project, but next week could be the last of the more frequent visits as breeding is almost over for this season.

I was in Hilly Fields this afternoon and met Keeper Justine who has quite an interest in the birdlife and brought me up-to-date on what was around. I filled the feeder in the Garden and then wandered over past the Playground when suddenly a Kestrel swooped down on something. Whatever it was must've got away because the two photos I managed show the Kestrel without a catch.

RSPB weekly survey

If you see this man with binoculars looking towards the roof of your house, all is well, he's not casing the joint!

This is Chris Orsman from the RSPB on his now weekly survey of House Sparrows in the Cliffview Road area. Chris is a key member of the London House Sparrow Project team which, until recently, surveyed 66 sites across London on a roughly monthly basis. The number of sites has now been reduced to permit weekly visits to the more active sites - including ours.

Chris will be in Hilly Fields park peering into our gardens and also in one or two gardens in Cliffview Road.

Some of his visits may be quite early in the morning but most surveys in our area will be on Wednesdays.

Nests galore

I haven't found the time to get into the park for two or three weeks, so today's findings quite made up for that.

First I found, in the quiet garden, a pair of Robins feeding a young one on the ground. All three had flown before I could get my camera out.

Next, near the school, I spotted a Mistle Thrush. It flew into a tree, straight to its nest and proceeded to feed its young. There were at least two of them. While watching that, Blue Tits were frequently flying into and out of the same tree. Just the other side to the Mistle Thrush nest was a natural hole in the tree with an occupied nest.

Around the other side of the play area I found one of the nestboxes made by pupils of Prendergast School was occupied by another family of Blue Tits.

Finally I returned to the Mistle thrush nest and managed to get a quick photo there too.

Quite a successful hour.

London House Sparrow Project

I’ve just received a call from Chris Orsman from the RSPB London House Sparrow Project.

Until now, they've been monitoring 66 sites around London on a roughly monthly basis, half of them fed with live food and the other half (including ours) are control sites. They are now dropping sites with fewest House Sparrows and intend to monitor the remainder (including ours) on a weekly basis.

To this end Chris, armed with clipboard and binoculars, will be peering over garden hedges around Hilly Fields Park surveying the nesting sites, many of which are in our roofs. Before he begins this new phase next week, Chris intends to visit those houses to introduce himself and assure you he’s not up to no good!

Sparrowhawk

This afternoon, around 5:30, a Sparrowhawk flew from the park and landed right beside the birdfeeders in my garden. It must have thought a meal would eventually turn up as it stayed there for about five minutes. Anyway, I did manage to get a pretty good photo of it before it flew back into the park.

(I include it in this blog because my garden backs onto the park)

Hedge Trimming Begins

I was in the park yesterday, Saturday, to fill the birdfeeder which was completely empty. It was a joy to find almost the entire garden carpeted with flowers - see pic.



Glendale have begun to trim the hedges along the Cliffview Road side of the park. The first few metres of hedge are trimmed.









Also there's new planting and fences repaired - thanks mainly, I understand, to Keith the Park Keeper.