The rain stopped just in time for our Hilly Fields Big Birdwatch event on 25th January, but the weather conditions weren't great. Nevertheless a lot of enthusiastic people turned up for the guided walk (19 adults, 5 children, 1 Jack Russell terrier) and we had a fun time going round the park. Birds recorded were 1 blackbird, 20 black-headed gulls, 3 blue tits, 3 crows, 19 common gulls, 8 feral pigeons, 2 goldfinchs, 1 great spotted woodpecker, 3 great tits, 6 house sparrows, 4 magpies, 4 redwings, 2 ring-necked parakeets, 8 robins, 40 starlings, 6 woodpigeons and 1 wren. These stats have been sent to the RSPB as part of their nationwide Big Garden Birdwatch.
Meanwhile, outside the cafe, Rachel gave out leaflets, sold a few copies of our Birds of Hilly Fields booklet and tutored some of the children in the art of making fat balls to feed the birds. She also managed to take a few photographs despite having 'lardy hands'. A messy time was had by all.
We were lucky to have sunny windless weather for the 2024 Big Birdwatch on 28 January. Around 50 people visited the Friends stall where we handed out bird ID leaflets and sold some 'merch' including postcards and our Birds of Hilly Fields booklet. Approx 20 people came on the bird walk and 20 bird species were recorded including great spotted woodpeckers, redwings, a mistle thrush and Britain's smallest bird, the goldcrest. The stats will be forwarded to the RSPB as part of their Big Garden Birdwatch.
A steady flow of children got stuck in (literally) to making fatballs for the birds, several of which ended up hanging from nearby trees. And someone created a new species of leaf bird.
Thanks to Rachel from the Friends for organising the event and managing the stall, to Emily from Glendale for support, to the birders who helped identify the birds (you know who you are), to Sadie, Oliver and Daniel who volunteered at the stall as part of their Duke of Edinburgh course, to anyone I've forgotten and everyone who came along!
What's next? Why, the annual wassail which happens in the Hilly Fields orchard (down the slope from the stone circle) at 3.30 pm this Sunday 4th February – so plenty of time for you to scrap all your other plans and come along. Please bring a mug if you can to sample the alcoholic or non-alcoholic hot drinks.
Our January 2021 survey was covered in the previous post as it doubled for the RSPB Big Birdwatch count. The highlights were 150 gulls and 60 redwings in the north field. In our next survey on 22nd Feb, the redwings were still there but the number had dropped to 30. The gull count was down to only 10 black-headed gulls and 2 common gulls. Also of note were 24 starlings, 20 house sparrows, 11 robins and 5 dunnocks which is a record count for that species. Also recorded: 3 blackbirds, 3 blue tits, 6 carrion crows, 1 collared dove, 7 goldfinches, 4 great tits, 5 magpies, 5 ring-necked parakeets, 1 song thrush, 1 stock dove, 5 woodpigeons and 7 wrens. I think this is the first time we've seen collared dove and stock dove on the same survey. There's a photo of collared doves in our wonderful new Birds of Hilly Fields booklet (see below). The stock dove has a green patch on its neck and a buff breast.
Stock Dove (stock photo)
On the 22nd March survey, it was nice to see a chaffinch near the stone circle, a female great spotted woodpecker drumming on the Lane, a pair of long-tailed tits in the Shade Garden, a pair of very active nuthatches which looked as if scouting for a nest site again and a pied wagtail on the bowling green. Redwings were down to 5 and they've probably flown back to Scandinavia by now. Also recorded: 3 blackbirds, 1 blackcap, 3 blue tits, 4 crows, 1 collared dove (heard only), 2 dunnock, 2 goldfinches, 2 great tits, 4 house sparrows, 2 magpies, 2 ring-necked parakeets, 10 robins, 8 starlings, 1 stock dove (again!), 8 woodpigeons and 8 wrens.
Dunnock on HF (doesn't always look this pretty)
Can't finish without mentioning our new booklet, Birds of Hilly Fields, produced by the Friends of Hilly Fields. It's been selling well, despite lockdown, and the feedback has been good, but we still have plenty of copies in stock. At present, it's available online (see link below) and can be purchased either by itself at £3.50 or with a tote cotton bag and postcards for £10. The link is https://supportmylocal.org/store/rachel-mooney/We deliver to your door within a radius of 2 miles and all profits go to the Friends of Hilly Fields.
We've been holding Big Bird Watch events on Hilly Fields on the last Sunday in January since 2009. Alas, Covid-19 put a stop to that this year, but we managed to do a survey on Friday 29 January in two groups of two. Alas again, it rained from start to finish, probably the worst weather that we've ever surveyed in. Water was streaming off the hill. In the circumstances, a count of 19 species was not too shabby, particularly as it included 150 Black-headed Gulls in the north field which is probably a site record, 60 Redwings, 26 Starlings, 25 House Sparrows, 12 Robins and 10 Magpies. Sue also heard a Nuthatch calling and it's good to know that they're still around. Also recorded were 3 Blackbirds, 3 Blue Tits, 3 Crows, 1 Collared Dove, 7 Common Gulls, 1 Dunnock, 5 Goldfinch, 5 Great Tits, 2 Herring Gulls, 4 Ring-necked Parakeets, 3 Woodpigeons and 1 Wren. We sent our results off to the RSPB for their annual survey.
Black-headed Gull - winter plumage
The reason why we had so many gulls is simple. Rain brings worms to the surface. They listen to the rhythm of the falling rain and slink upward from their burrows. We saw them everywhere on the surface, on paths as well, and the gulls had a feast. Some of the other birds were joining in including the Redwings and Starlings.
Black-headed Gulls breeding plumage in spring
Just a reminder about our new booklet 'Birds of Hilly Fields'. It's been selling well, despite lockdown, and the feedback has been good, but we still have plenty of copies in stock. At present, it's available online (see link below) and can be purchased either by itself at £3.50 or with a tote cotton bag and postcards for £10. We deliver to your door within a radius of 2 miles and all profits go to the Friends of Hilly Fields. It can also be bought from the Hilly Fields cafe when open.
Redwings have been seen twice this week on Hilly Fields, twittering in the trees and feeding on the ground near the stone circle. I counted circa 40 birds on Monday afternoon and Rachel saw a similar number this morning.
Redwings are members of the Thrush family, as are Blackbirds, Fieldfares and of course the Mistle Thrush and Song Thrush (and, further north, the Ring Ouzel). Redwings get their name from a red patch under the wing which can clearly be seen in my photos but isn't always visible. The stripes around the head are a more reliable ID feature, particularly the creamy white stripe over the eye. They have a similar spotted breast to other thrushes. Their twittering is a form of 'subsong' which the dictionary describes as 'an unstructured, often rambling vocalisation of low volume'. I couldn't have put it better myself.
Most of the Redwings seen in Southern Britain are migrants from Scandinavia. They arrive in autumn and feed on fallen fruit and berries. They get through the winter mainly on a diet of earthworms and depart in early spring. It's unusual to see so many on the ground in Hilly Fields, but they would have been frustrated by last week's snow and are making up for it now. They'll also be 'feeding up' for the flight home. The 'subsong' is usually a sign that they're thinking of departure and also of courtship when they get back. It's lovely to see and hear them. Let's hope they return in similar numbers in the autumn.
I don't want to sound wildly optimistic but I think we may have reached a turning point. With temperatures soaring into double figures (19°C promised on Sunday), things are changing on Hilly Fields and no doubt elsewhere. On Wednesday morning, at least a dozen Redwings (with a few Fieldfares mixed in) were twittering excitedly in the West Field trees alongside Montague Avenue. It sounded as if they knew that the time was approaching for their delayed (by bad weather) flight back to Scandinavia. Sure enough, when I led a group of dawn chorus walkers over there the following morning at 06.30 hrs, the trees were silent.
Redwing in one of the West Field trees - red under the wing and a white stripe over the eye
The Black-headed Gulls departed sometime over the weekend. Today, Friday, I noticed one or two Common Gulls overhead but there was no sign of the usual flock on the grass, so they too have presumably gone forth to multiply. I also saw this morning, however, the two resident Mistle Thrushes singing for the first time this year and heard a Chiffchaff singing in one of the Eastern Road hawthorns. The Chiffchaff is a spring migrant which flies to the UK each year from the Med and West Africa - an olive brown warbler about the size of a Blue Tit. They have been arriving more slowly than usual, presumably because of the weather and there have been reports of them flopping in exhaustion on reaching the south coast beaches. But one at least has made it this far and they've also been heard in other nearby locations. The Chiffchaff is not always easy to spot, but its song is very distinctive and easily remembered.
Elsewhere, nest building is going on apace. A Crow's nest can be seen high in one of the London Plane trees on the northern border of the bowling green and the resident Magpies are nesting at the top of one of the Eastern Road hawthorns. A little further down Eastern Road just past the green gates, Long-tailed Tits have built a nest in a bramble bush, but it seems to have been abandoned. We can't be sure why, but it is a bad location - too close to the pavement and too vulnerable - and their nests also suffer from a high level of predation by other species.
Changes are visible in the plant world too where there really are "green shoots of recovery" to be seen. Cow Parsley is spreading across the ground, particularly around the lower Vicars Hill entrance, ready to accompany the May blossom next month. And the wild Sweet Violets which Nick Bertrand pointed out to us on the Rivers and People walk last month are now coming into flower. Look for a bright green patch just off the path which runs alongside the Cliffview Rd border. On the whole, there is much to look forward to in the coming weeks.
The dawn chorus walk on Thursday was well attended. 15 people turned up at 6 am after a night's rain which was still lightly persisting. Naturally, we heard Great Tits calling everywhere, Wrens with their mighty trilling song, a Blackbird singing beautifully on Eastern Road and saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker high in a tree on the Adelaide Avenue border. Nothing spectacular but sometimes the simplest things can mesmerise. People were much taken by the sight of a female Chaffinch singing on a low branch only a few feet in front of us outside the school. After Hilly Fields, we went on to the Brockley and Ladywell cemeteries where we heard Robins (strangely quiet on Hilly Fields), a Dunnock and, in the distance, the laughing call of a Green Woodpecker - though not everybody heard that, including me! However, everybody did hear a Song Thrush repeating its varied phrases (as many as a hundred in its repertoire) from the top of a tree.
Here's what a Green Woodpecker looks like and what it's laughing call or "yaffle" sounds like:
The cemeteries are of Victorian origin and, as well as containing much local history, they are in effect a nature reserve in the heart of Lewisham. In fact, the council has listed them as a Grade 1 Site of Borough Importance for biodiversity and nature conservation purposes. The Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries have their own website - http://www.foblc.org.uk/ - and hold guided walks. The next one is on Sunday 21st April starting from the Brockley Road gate at 2pm and lasting about 1 hour 45 mins. Thanks to Lewisham Council for allowing us access to the cemeteries outside normal hours, special thanks to Mike Guilfoyle from the Friends who came along at 7 am to unlock the gate for us and thanks to Rachel for publicising the event via Facebook and http://www.hilly.org.uk/
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