Category Wild Pavements – urban nature adventures
April 2016
After a week away, we returned to hear our first chiffchaff on 2 April.
February 2016
Little finches are back. A siskin on the feeder on Sun and a lone redpoll yesterday on the niger seed feeder. R and M saw a goldcrest in the garden on the 29th.
September 2015
Fruit, fruit and more fruit… Picked plums, damsons and bullaces this morning in S Norwood Country Park and rosehips from the garden. Hedgerow jelly bubbling gently on the stove. Kestrel and sparrowhawk hunting in the park.
July 2015
Overwhelmed this morning on the way to school by the scent of sweet chestnut flowers.
June 2015
What an amazing start to the month with… – three of our four baby blue tits fledging successfully on the last day of May – a buzzard and sparrowhawk flying over the garden on 6th June – a hummingbird hawkmoth feeding on the red valerian in our garden on 7th June – and a hedgehog […]
May 2015
Saw my first local swift on 7 May… 24 May our baby blue tits fledged – even with a bit of assistance the smallest one of the brood wasn’t strong enough to make it into the trees.
April 2015
I’m contributing to the Great Spring Watch – and looking out for first sightings of: – oak leaves (17 April 2015) – hawthorn blossom – 7 spot ladybirds (12 April 2015) – orange tip butterfly – swallows (although I haven’t ever seen them here). My spring indicators list for Sydenham Hill woods would include: – […]
March 2015
R and I saw our first honey bees on the first day of the month in a neighbours’ crocus patch. Our local bird expert D told me not to worry that we haven’t had any lesser red polls in the garden this month. As they’re passing through, this may not reflect population numbers but simply […]
January 2015
We’ve been looking out for a white-headed long-tailed tit which has been reported in the woods in the Times nature diary. We’ve seen one in the garden today with a whiter head than usual but it looks more like a pale regular tit than a Northern one. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article4309034.ece
December 2014
As the winter solstice approaches, it’s suddenly warm and wet in the woods. Night-time walk on the solstice remarkably mild and pleasant.
The Urban Naturalist 