Greenwich Wildlife (1) The Kestrel
Thanks to Dazza, I'm starting yet another occasional series today, Greenwich Wildlife. By that I don't mean, of course, the sort found around the Creek Road Wetherspoons on a Friday night. That's pond life...
No what I'm talking about is the Real McCoy - the birds, animals and insects we can see around these parts.
Dazza set the ball rolling by spotting a Kestrel on a roof in Dandridge Close. He reminds me that there was a breeding pair around the Dome some years back (I vaguely remember them being 'featured' in Zane Radcliffe's London Irish) though this one is a juvenile (Dazza says you can tell by the way it doesn't have the grey head of the adult, though to me it's the fluffy feathers that give it away.)
No what I'm talking about is the Real McCoy - the birds, animals and insects we can see around these parts.
Dazza set the ball rolling by spotting a Kestrel on a roof in Dandridge Close. He reminds me that there was a breeding pair around the Dome some years back (I vaguely remember them being 'featured' in Zane Radcliffe's London Irish) though this one is a juvenile (Dazza says you can tell by the way it doesn't have the grey head of the adult, though to me it's the fluffy feathers that give it away.)
I know nothing about kestrels, but I'm mighty glad that they're around. They're beautiful birds - and who knows - they might be able to do something about the exploding mouse population down my way (beautiful little creatures; dreadfully destructive.)
Actually I just read that back. The idea of exploding mice is just wrong. Sorry...
Any more sightings on interesting animals/birds/whatever? Tell me about it - or send me pics - I always like pics - even of mice...)
Labels: Secret Greenwich, Wildlife Greenwich
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
09:03
8 Comments:
That probably accounts for the disappearance of one of my goldfish ...
Never heard of a kestrel liking fish....they are more of a Mammals and small birds type of carnivore.
Your loss of Goldfish could be down to the local magpie population which seems to have taken off......One for sorrow, 2 for joy, 3 for a girl and 4 for a boy.....etc.
I even saw a Magpie hounding a cat that had caught a mouse the other day. They are getting braver....LOL
We, also, have a booming mouse population so it might be that the hunters have moved where the food source is. I think the exploding mice thing is down to the amount of new buildings going up around us. The mice used to have the Petrol station land to live on and the Back of Malton Street in the Old Children's play area.
I won't even get started on the Foxes......I think they are lovely but I know that some see them as vermin.
I have seen a Kesrtrel in my garden , swooping down on an unsuspecting sparrow. Then of course there are the toads.....................
I bow to your greater wotsit, dazza.
I am v. peeved by the mouse explosion. I have just watched one fit-looking mouse mooching around my bathroom mid-afternoon, unbothered by my watching him from the kitchen. He was, I think, looking for my emergency supplies of rice and sack of bokhashi bran that he was trying to eat last night and which I have now relocated to mouse-proof containers. I have had to buy large mouse-proof containers for blimmin everything.
I claim no credit for any information I may impart.....the internet and the RSPB website should take all the credit....LOL
Maybe the mousey thing is a conspiracy buy the makers and stockers of various large plastic containers trying to drum up business during the current slowdown.......cue 'X-Files' music. Rememeber 'Trust No-one'
Mice,
Problem is that poisons and baits that can be legally sold now only to make the mice a bit woozy. For those of you who are arnen't squeemish about these things, an old fashioned mousetrap is the best solution. For the more softhearted there are traps which capture them alive and unharmed. For both types of trap there's nothing that will attract mice better than a smear of peanut butter on a sliver of toast. But now I think about it, that just the sort of food that would trap me. Marnells on Old Dover Road at the Standard sell both type of trap.
Must go; the peanut butter in the kitchem calls to me me.
Mouse/Rat problems? Want to rent a cat? One of mine is an expert mouser, currently catching about one a day, although you may have to dispose of the tails yourself, the only bit he doesnt eat, too chewy he says!
More on mousetraps - if you use the 'humane' sort that don't kill, you need to take the captured mouse a long way away or it just runs back! (I've seen suggestions of one mile or even several miles). They then die a slower death from starvation or mouse bullying...
As I didn't fancy taking a mouse for a bus ride, I got the killing sort - you can get some that work like a giant clip so they're easy to set and you don't have to touch the mouse when you've caught it. (They're in B&Q or Deptford Market). Try Reese's Peanut Butter Cups as bait - you just put a tiny bit and eat the rest ;-)
Yep,I am just a little bit mouse-obsessed at the moment... Love the idea of the Great Tupperware Conspiracy!
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