Greenwich Wildlife (6)
We haven't had any Greenwich Wildlife for ages - I guess it's been so cold and miserable that everything's been hiding. Or maybe we've all been too miserable to notice anything.Roger was just coming out of the public loos in Greenwich Park (you really needed to know that, didn't you...) and spotted this little fellow, which Roger tells me is a Long Tailed Tit. I have to take his word for it, as I know next to nothing about Greenwich's bird population. The shot's a bit fuzzy as Roger (for fairly obvious reasons) didn't have his camera to hand at the time and had to fumble about for it. Apparently this species of tit is quite rare in these parts (no obvious gags, now, guys.)
I checked in my ever-reliable A D Webster, who waxes lyrical about flora and fauna in Greenwich Park, and just over 100 years ago, four types of tit were common - the great, blue, marsh and long-tailed variety.
Webster lived in the Gingerbread House at Blackheath Gate (also more prosaically known as The Blackheath Gate Lodge) and says "In my own garden I once saw a flock of long-tailed tits (Paris caudatus) where they remained for several hours..."
Roger didn't hang around the Gents for several hours (ahem), but he assures me he saw around half a dozen in the bushes foraging for insects.
Nice to know that some of our wildlife is constant...
More Greenwich Flora and Fauna another day. Let me know if you see something rare (and no - Nick Raynsford actually speaking in parliament doesn't count...)
Labels: birds, Greenwich Wildlife
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
08:09
9 Comments:
We've got sparrows in Eltham! Also Blue Tits, Great Tits, Jays, Yellow Wagtails, Pied Wagtails, Robins (or at least one of them; they're fiercely territorial and I've never seen more than the one)and at least one Wren (which seems to be losing its shyness and often pops up onto the wall and sings - extremely loudly for such a tiny bird) when I'm standing at the front door in the morning having a cigarette. Early in March, I was pottering about outside when there was a sudden flurry of wings and a pheasant landed nearby, looking impossibly exotic in the bare trees. It strutted about for half an hour and then disappeared. No idea where it could have come from - unless from nearby Eltham Palace?
I have a huge Weeping Fig by the window of my sitting room and yesterday afternoon a tiny little bird flew in and perched on it's branches! I haven't the faintest idea what bird it was except it was very cute!
There have been loads of Painted Lady and Red Admiral butterflies around over the last few days – and I did see a Brimstone (all yellow) earlier. Even though they are meant to be quite common that's the first I've seen for a year or two.
And, despite bees having a bit of a rough time of things of late - there seem to be loads around these parts.
I can voucher for the quantity of birds near St Alfeges... if not the quality!
I've been woken at 4am by birdsong for the last week - so there are certainly plenty out there!
Still, much better than being woken by car alarms or police sirens!
Fortunately, all the greenfly seem to have disappeared.
I saw a pair of Goldfinches (look them up) outside the back of the old power station in east Greenwich yesterday- very chirpy (them not me).
One bird that always gives me a thrill when I see one in London is the kingfisher - it's a bird I associate with fairly remote countryside so it's always a pleasant surprise to see them going about their business in a major city. I've seen them at Foot's Cray in the east and see them fairly regularly in the Creek (usually when the tide is out and the river water runs clear) and in the Ravensbourne (try Brookmill Park) in the west.
Oh, Capability, are you sure that the yellow wagtails aren't actually grey wagtails? The names are pretty confusing because they both have a lot of yellow plumage.
I've seen a group of 3 long tailed tits a fair few times in Blackheath. And there's often a heron in the Hare And Billet pond, which goes perfectly, verbally. We also get coal tits, great tits, blue tits, starlings, mistle thrushes (lately), greenfinches, chaffinches, wood pigeons, feral pigeons, robins, a jay, magpies, carrion crows and of course parakeets.
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