October Bird Survey

The last day of October was overcast and windy with rain showers also forecast. These are not the sort of conditions which entice birds out into the open, particularly when there's still plenty of dense foliage for them to shelter in. My expectations were low therefore as I trudged up Vicars Hill towards the park. On meeting Terry, however, who joined me for this month's survey, I discovered that he'd had already seen a flock of Long-tailed Tits, a Goldcrest and a Great Spotted Woodpecker all in the Eastern Road area! By the end of our walkabout,we'd clocked a healthy total of 18 different species. The Goldcrest, which I saw later in the garden area was hanging out with the Long-tailed Tits. It is officially Britain's smallest bird and has a quiet high-pitched call. The yellow and black striped head crest (from which it gets its name) is difficult to see from the ground and I'm not sure I would have recognised it without Terry's expert eye. This is only the second time that we Bird Champions have seen one on Hilly Fields, the last being in March 2009. Here's a cute little clip from You Tube:

The other significant feature of our survey was the return of the gulls which are moving back into the city now that the temperature is dropping. Small in number at present - 9 Black-headed Gulls and 2 Common Gulls waddling around next to the cricket pitch - but more will follow. The Starlings are also back - we counted 13 noisily convening in one of the trees on the Northern field - but again more will turn up as the autumn and winter progresses. We counted 80 during the RSPB Birdwatch event last January. Here's a pic of them dropping in to join a gull on the grass.

Also seen or heard: several Robins calling in different places, one briefly singing; 2 Jays in trees between the wood and the orchard; 3 Feral Pigeons, 8 Wood Pigeons; 2 Blackbirds, one a black-billed juvenile; 5 Crows and 1 Magpie (for sorrow); small numbers of Great Tits and Blue Tits calling in various locations; 2 Goldfinches and, in the Cliffview back gardens hedge, the usual family of 4 House Sparrows, males outnumbering female by 3:1; and a solitary Ring-necked Parakeet.

PS. Shortly after posting the above, Sue told me she had seen earlier this week "a Sparrowhawk going from HF across Vicars Hill, a Peregrine Falcon going the other way over Algiers Road and a Green Woodpecker on an ash tree near the garden/bothy on Hilly Fields". This is the first Green Woodpecker that we have spotted on Hilly Fields though they can be found quite often in Brockley and Ladywell cemeteries.

A Dead Duck and An Owl

You know it's a quiet morning when three birders - myself, Sue and Tony - end up staring through our binoculars at a Wood Pigeon sitting in a tree. Later on, we saw a flock of 26 "Woodies" on the East Field, although they were soon frightened off by a Glendale man hoovering up litter. Other than that our monthly survey on 28 September was very nearly a dead duck- as they say. The oppressively gloomy weather had a lot to do with it, I'm sure. Birds that we have little difficulty in seeing on a normal day like Great Tits, Robins and Goldfinches could not be tempted out of their cover and were heard rather than seen. We did get a good view of three Blue Tits at the top of a tree in the Vicars Hill border, though one had flown by the time I got my camera out.

Blue Tits in the Vicars Hill border

We heard a single Wren in the wood, caught a brief glimpse of a blackbird in the Veda Road garden border, saw a Mistle Thrush fly across the lower field into the tree canopy and two House Sparrows at the top end of Vicars Hill. But only those old familiars - the Crows and Magpies - were out and about as usual. At least by the end of next month, the gulls should have arrived for the winter. And the Robins which are ticking and clicking just about everywhere at the moment as they establish territorial rights should be showing themselves more clearly. And of course the trees will be shedding their leaves...

Magpie on the East Field

There has been one piece of good news during September - a Tawny Owl has been heard hooting after dark by residents along the Cliffview Road border. Tawnies are not uncommon in the parks and wooded areas of London, though this is a "first" on Hilly Fields during the time that we've been recording. When the London Wildlife Trust carried out a survey in 1985, over 400 records of Tawny Owls were submitted covering every borough except the City of London. Interestingly, the LWT has just completed another "owl prowl" survey and it will be interesting to see how it compares and whether numbers have fallen like those of many other bird species. If you hear an owl hooting on Hilly Fields, please let us know via the comments box.

Tawny Owl [stock photo]

Goodbye Mr McGaw

Sadly, this week sees the departure of Chris McGaw who has managed the Lewisham Rivers and People project since its inception two and a half years ago. In that time, Chris has led umpteen walks all over Lewisham and shown us many features of the natural world that we never knew existed in our urban surroundings. Hilly Fields has been on the itinerary several times including two dawn chorus walks when Chris drove in from his home in Kent for a 5.00 am start. He even managed to stop the rain for a couple of hours this year and provided the magic key that let us into Brockley and Ladywell cemeteries as part of the walk.

Chris under the Hilly Fields green flag
May 2011

Ladywell Fields Sept 2012

Chris is a birder with a particular skill in recognising birdsong, but he also has a very wide knowledge of nature in general and has identified for us many flowers, plants, trees and tree galls, insects, fish and other aquatic creatures. Always helpful, his enthusiasm for nature has been inspiring. In his new job at the Kench Hill Centre near Tenterden, Chris will be helping inner city school children learn more about the natural world. He will be very much missed in Lewisham.

August Bird Survey

The upper half of Eastern Road and the adjoining wood/nature reserve could almost be designated an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Birdwatching) within Hilly Fields. Apart from the winter Gulls (and, come to think of it, the House Sparrow), almost every bird that frequents the park can be seen there at some time or other and it's particularly favoured by the smaller birds such as Tits, Finches, Blackcaps, Robins, Wrens and by Blackbirds. Obviously the number of trees is a big attraction, as is the cover provided by the sheer density of foliage, particularly the hawthorn scrub on the western side of the road. And at this time of year, the bright red haw berries provide a food source.

Blackbird in Hilly Fields Wood

Eastern Road also contributes one of the few sources of water for birds on Hilly Fields. On this month's survey (24 August), we watched a small flock of adult and juvenile Goldfinches along with a couple of Greenfinches swoop down from the roadside trees to drink from puddles in the gutters and little potholes - a sight we've often noted before. In the wood, we heard a couple of Robins singing for the first time since late spring - a sure sign that they're emerging from the summer moult. Wrens were singing there too. And flitting among the trees on the eastern side of Eastern Road was our old friend the Great Spotted Woodpecker, not seen since early June. In this full zoom photo, you can just about make out its black, white and red colouring.

Elsewhere in the park, we saw Great Tits, Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Magpies, Crows, Feral Pigeons, House Sparrows, Ring-necked Parakeets and Wood Pigeons. In addition, Sue intended to listen to her birdsong CDs to determine whether the "chink" (or was it "pink"?) we heard could have been a Chaffinch calling. This makes a reasonably wide range of species, albeit in small numbers apart from the "Woodies". Still no sign of any Starlings. Earlier in the month, I saw a pair of Mistle Thrushes in the Eastern Road hawthorns and a Jay in the poplars along the Stones Field boundary, so it's good to know they're still around.

Meanwhile, in other news, something is coming to fruition along Eastern Road - yes, it's also an Area of Outstanding Natural Blackberrying. If you haven't been along there with your bowl yet, now's the time.

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!