Another roundabout sortie to the local shops on a sunny spring afternoon.
I have been hoping to find Coal Tits and/or Goldcrest in the large pines on the east side of Erith Cemetery for some time and, after exercising a fair bit of patience, I was rewarded with long-lasting views of a pair of Coal Tits foraging and, at one point sat still preening in close proximity to one another.
Other birds seen were Great Tit, Blue Tit, 2 Long-tailed Tits, Blackbirds, Robin, Carrion Crows and 3 Magpie. House Sparrows were heard by the gatehouse. The absence of the Starlings from the nearby Poplars was evident, but I did eventually stumble upon a rather bemused-looking lone individual which was very tolerant of my approach. Overall, species numbers were down on visits earlier in the year.
Grape Hyacinths were coming up in the gravelly tops of several memorials and I could only assume that they hadn't got wider traction on account of frequent mowing. A few moments of intensive searching found a couple of leaves of Birds-foot, mirroring its occurence on Hollyhill Open Space on the other side of the same valley.
The 'laughing' call of a Green Woodpecker and drumming of a Great Spotted Woodpecker were heard emanating from the nearby Erith Quarry site, and the stand of Gorse towards the north-west corner could be seen in flower through my binoculars.
The Council has lately made some improvements to the 'front' part of Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground with patches of Crocus and Daffodils in the grass, and several newly planted trees. But there is still much scope for improvement in terms of wildlife-friendly features - a strip of unmown grass round the margins would help. There were 2 Long-tailed Tits in the evergreens near the car park - where the native Gorse in the shrub bed - was flowering nicely and a Pied Wagtail and a couple of Starlings flying over, plus the usual House Sparrows and Carrion Crows. Starling numbers have suddenly declined markedly in this area too. Presumably most were winter immigrants.
I had been thinking earlier in the day that, after a long period of largely overcast weather (albeit with little rain) it felt like the sort of conditions in which one might get to see a butterfly and, lo and behold, there was a Peacock on the wing in the 'rear' section of the site - though nothing for it to feed on across the swathes of closely mown turf.
Showing posts with label Long-tailed Tits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Long-tailed Tits. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Friday, 24 December 2010
24/12/10: Danson Park Shoveler surprise
Bursted Wood:
Checked out the tree line along the north side of the former pitch-and-putt course. 2 Blue Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tit. Plus a couple of Great Tit turning over leaves on bits of ground free of snow.
Inside the wood itself several Magpies and Carrion Crow were about. There were 3 or 4 Blue Tit in the hospital grounds. Some 40 Wood Pigeon flew overhead and 3 Ring-necked Parakeets. A Wren darted under some ivy at the base of a tree.
17 more Wood Pigeon were in a couple of trees on The Green.
8 House Sparrows were in a garden shrub on Herbert Rd., Bexleyheath, and several Starlings were seen here, then more along Church Rd.
There were a couple of Collared Doves along Upton Rd.
17 Starlings were in a tree at the junction of Lion Rd and Upton Rd, and about 30 more were in a tall Poplar some way away south of Martin Dene.
In an attempt to find out if it was possible to get onto Bexleyheath Golf Course I ended up on Iris Avenue, but there was no (legitimate) way in here. I was, however, pleased to see 16 young plants of native Broom along the bank leading up to the roadway.
I followed a footpath that continued across the A2, where a Great Tit was singing very loudly to be heard above the din of the traffic.
An alleyway leading onto Arcadian Av. harboured Hedera colchica, probably a garden throw-out, and a Japanese Honeysuckle, likely seeded from a specimen in a nearby garden.
Heading west I went through the underpass that comes out at the bottom end of Lodge Lane, on my way to Danson Park.
Danson Park:
Danson lake was pretty much completely frozen over apart from a small area around an island with trees on, by where the solar panels are sat on a floating raft. This had had the effect of concentrating most of the waterbirds in one place, though the large number of Black-headed Gulls were spread between this location and the ice up by the boating shed.
I was surprised to see 52 Shoveler - some swimming and most standing on the ice - my first record of this species here (though I've not visited in winter before). There were 40 Coot, 52 Carrion Crow (that all homed in on some duck-feeding kids), 14+ Moorhen, 14 Canada Geese, quite a few Mallard, several Ring-necked Parakeets, 5 Long-tailed Tit, a (Mistle?) Thrush, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Robin.
Checked out the tree line along the north side of the former pitch-and-putt course. 2 Blue Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tit. Plus a couple of Great Tit turning over leaves on bits of ground free of snow.
Inside the wood itself several Magpies and Carrion Crow were about. There were 3 or 4 Blue Tit in the hospital grounds. Some 40 Wood Pigeon flew overhead and 3 Ring-necked Parakeets. A Wren darted under some ivy at the base of a tree.
17 more Wood Pigeon were in a couple of trees on The Green.
8 House Sparrows were in a garden shrub on Herbert Rd., Bexleyheath, and several Starlings were seen here, then more along Church Rd.
There were a couple of Collared Doves along Upton Rd.
17 Starlings were in a tree at the junction of Lion Rd and Upton Rd, and about 30 more were in a tall Poplar some way away south of Martin Dene.
In an attempt to find out if it was possible to get onto Bexleyheath Golf Course I ended up on Iris Avenue, but there was no (legitimate) way in here. I was, however, pleased to see 16 young plants of native Broom along the bank leading up to the roadway.
I followed a footpath that continued across the A2, where a Great Tit was singing very loudly to be heard above the din of the traffic.
An alleyway leading onto Arcadian Av. harboured Hedera colchica, probably a garden throw-out, and a Japanese Honeysuckle, likely seeded from a specimen in a nearby garden.
Heading west I went through the underpass that comes out at the bottom end of Lodge Lane, on my way to Danson Park.
Danson Park:
Danson lake was pretty much completely frozen over apart from a small area around an island with trees on, by where the solar panels are sat on a floating raft. This had had the effect of concentrating most of the waterbirds in one place, though the large number of Black-headed Gulls were spread between this location and the ice up by the boating shed.
I was surprised to see 52 Shoveler - some swimming and most standing on the ice - my first record of this species here (though I've not visited in winter before). There were 40 Coot, 52 Carrion Crow (that all homed in on some duck-feeding kids), 14+ Moorhen, 14 Canada Geese, quite a few Mallard, several Ring-necked Parakeets, 5 Long-tailed Tit, a (Mistle?) Thrush, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Robin.
Saturday, 26 December 2009
25 + 26/12/09: Birds of a feather
On Christmas Day there was a Great Tit in the garden, as well as Blue Tit. The Robin came as close as 2 feet away. A large Fox was about at dusk.
On Boxing Day 4 Long-tailed Tits came within 6 feet of me, foraging above my head in a Forsythia. 2 Blue Tits sat on the fringes off the action sounding annoyed - either at the Long-tails, or warning them they were taking too big a risk going that close to what they saw as a potential predator. Blackbirds have been thin on the ground hereabouts lately, but a male was around today.
On Boxing Day 4 Long-tailed Tits came within 6 feet of me, foraging above my head in a Forsythia. 2 Blue Tits sat on the fringes off the action sounding annoyed - either at the Long-tails, or warning them they were taking too big a risk going that close to what they saw as a potential predator. Blackbirds have been thin on the ground hereabouts lately, but a male was around today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
