Dear Readers, as I was saying earlier this week, the fledgling starlings are the most wide-eyed innocents I’ve ever seen. While everyone else is alarm calling and flying for safety, they often stay perched, looking around to see what all the fuss was about. But there is no call more blood-chilling than that of a young starling in the jaws of a cat, or under the talons of a bird of prey, so when I heard the familiar keening on Tuesday morning I rushed to the window to see what was happening and there, sure enough, was a sparrowhawk standing on a screaming starling.

This didn’t surprise me, though it saddened me – the sparrowhawks have an unerring sense of when there’s easy pickings, though it’s amazing that they can navigate through the tangle of buildings and trees to strike. This is, I think, a male (apologies for the blurry shot, it was the only one I got a chance to take), and he probably has babies in the nest somewhere himself.

What did surprise me, though, was the behaviour of the other animals. Firstly, I was too slow to catch a squirrel on camera, but it approached within striking range of the sparrowhawk. I knew that squirrels were omnivores who will eat carrion, eggs and baby birds if they get the chance, but to try to steal prey from a sparrowhawk seemed pretty daring. However, I’m pretty sure that the squirrel that I saw has babies in the nest, so she probably needs all the protein she can get.

And then, the squirrel ran for it and one of the pair of magpies who’ve been haunting the garden landed. It’s actually bigger than the sparrowhawk and has much more attitude – it would have stolen the newly-expired starling from right under the hawk’s foot. By this stage the raptor seemed to have had enough, as it took off vertically with the starling dangling from one foot and headed off over the rooftops to eat its food in peace.

And a strange, eerie peace descended on the garden, as it always does when a sparrowhawk has paid a visit, but within half an hour everybody was back. Normally all the baby starlings emerge at once, but it’s been a bit more spread out this year, which I think favours the predators who can pick them off more easily. I also worry that I haven’t yet been inundated with youngsters, but maybe that will come later. At any rate, it was a bit less like Disneyland and a bit more like ‘When Animals Attack’ in the garden today, and I’ll be very glad when things get a little less dramatic.

Robin

Dear Readers, I was scanning the garden yesterday when I noticed a blur of movement down by the pond. Out came the binoculars! And after a few anxious minutes, I was able to focus on a quintessential ‘little brown job’ – definitely a warbler of some kind, and my money is on a chiffchaff, though it didn’t call so I wasn’t able to identify it for sure. The bird didn’t stick around for long enough to get a photo either, so here is a much better photo from someone else.

Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) (Photo One)

However, this got me thinking about the birds that have been seen in my garden, and I thought I’d knock up  a quick list. I’d be fascinated to know how this list is different from those of you in other parts of the country, and also in other places in the world – I know that Anne from SomethingOverTea lives in South Africa and has a garden list about four times as long as mine, which just illustrates how birds definitely prefer warmer climes with lots of insect food. But how does it compare with a list from Switzerland, for example? Anyhow, here are all the birds that have been seen in the garden since I moved here in 2010 (I’m not including those that have flown over, so no cormorants or swallows or black-backed gulls).

1. Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)
2. Sparrowhawk (Accipter nisus)
3. Rock dove/Feral pigeon (Columba livia)
4. Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus)
5. Collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
6. Ring-necked parakeet (Psittacula krameri)
7. Great-spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)
8. Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
9. Magpie (Pica pica)
10. Carrion crow (Corvus corone)
11. Jackdaw (Corvus monedula)
12. Blackbird (Turdus merula)
13. Song thrush (Turdus philmelos)
14. Redwing (Turdus iliacus)
15. Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)
16. Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
17. Great tit (Parus major)
18. Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
19. Coal tit (Periparus ater)
20. Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
21. Dunnock (Prunella modularis)
22. Robin (Erithacus rubecula)
23. Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)
24. Common chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)
25. Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)
26. Pied wagtail (Motacilla alba)
27. Grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)
28. House sparrow (Passer domesticus)
29. Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
30. Common redpoll (Carduelis flammea)
31. Siskin (Carduelis spinus)
32. Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)
33. Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
34. Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Blackbird

So, a few things strike me about this list.

1. If I  hadn’t had the pond, I wouldn’t have been visited by the heron (or the grey wagtail), and lots of other birds stop by to drink too – the ‘chiffchaff’ yesterday was chiefly interested in the water.
2. Many of the birds only visit in very bad weather – that would cover the fieldfare (who was grounded during a snowstorm), the siskins (who only come when it’s actually snowing) and the redpolls.
3. Many of the birds pop over from nearby Coldfall Wood (the song thrush and the great-spotted woodpecker for sure)
4. I have more of the warbler-type birds since my vines and hedges have grown a bit thicker – the blackcap spent most of her time in the tangle of bittersweet this year.

However, there are also some notable omissions.

1. Although the waxwings often visit the street trees locally, they never come to see me in the garden – I guess there just isn’t the necessary concentration of berries. The rowan and the whitebeam are having a great year though, so let’s see what happens this winter.
2. I always hope to see a brambling on its way through, or a bullfinch, but so far neither has stopped by (at least when I’ve been watching). If you see them in your garden, what’s your secret?
3. Some of the birds that I see regularly in Coldfall Wood (stock doves, treecreepers, nuthatches) never come to see me – I imagine they’re quite happy where they are.
4. I have a lot of predators for such a small patch – not just the occasional sparrowhawk taking out a collared dove, but magpies and jays and, of course, lots of cats. The cover for the birds can also provide cover for a marauding cat. I’ve learned to listen for the alarm calls, and will go outside and shoo off any felines that I think are rather too interested in what’s going on, but of course I can’t be there all the time. There were lots of babies last year (blue tits, blackbirds, robins, wrens) but it would be fascinating to know how many of them actually survive to adulthood. This year I have been ‘adopted’ by a pair of magpies, and the rest of the bird community are very unimpressed.

So, over to you, readers. What do you get in your garden? What would you love to see? What have you done that has made your garden more friendly for birds? Let’s share our experiences. The birds need all the help they can get.

Nuthatch in the cemetery, but never in my garden 🙁

Dear Readers, regular visitors to the blog will know that we are lucky enough to have two remnants of ancient woodland in East Finchley – one is Coldfall Wood, and the other is Cherry Tree Wood. On Thursday I decided to have a little trot around Cherry Tree Wood – for one thing, last time I was there the grassy area was under so much water that someone decided to have a little kayak there, and secondly it punches above its weight in terms of natural history interest. This is particularly surprising as it’s so well used – it has a children’s playground, a café and tennis/basketball courts. Still, I’ve noticed some very visible green woodpeckers on previous visits, mistle thrushes nest here (and I’ve never seen them in Coldfall), and even here you can get away from people if you take some of the secondary paths.

Down by the café there was this lovely patch of almost-English bluebells. The pollen is white, which often indicates that they are English rather than hybrids, but there is something about the colour and shape that looks as if there might have been a bit of shenanigans going on. They are rather lovely nonetheless.

And look at the hawthorn! It’s going to be a bumper year for this plant I suspect, I have never seen so much blossom. Maybe our cold spring suits it. I rather think this is Midland hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata) – the leaves are described as ‘shallowly three-lobed’, and as the plant is typical of ancient woodland I’m feeling fairly confident. As usual, let me know what you think, botanist friends! I am learning all the time. Like the bluebells, hawthorns can also hybridise.

There is going to be lots of honeysuckle later in the year too, I came across these patches right at the back of the wood close to the back fences of the neighbouring houses, so whether the plant has jumped out of the garden or will shortly be jumping in is anyone’s guess.

The oaks, hornbeams and horse chestnuts are just coming into leaf, and the grassy area has changed from quagmire to dust. There’s lots of rain forecast for the next few days, though, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Next to the toilets and the tennis courts is a patch of yellow flag iris, growing very happily. This part of the wood is also positively boggy for much of the year. The Mutton Brook rises somewhere around here, and is captured and culverted and directed under the railway line at the southern edge of the Wood.

The culvert that takes the Mutton Brook into Hampstead Garden Suburb

Why, though, do you think this area is called Cherry Tree Wood? Actually, in its early life it was called Dirthouse Wood – night soil was collected from North London and left at the Dirthouse on the opposite side of the road, where the White Lion pub  is now. This was then spread as fertiliser on the nearby hay meadows. But there are lots of bird cherries in the wood, and very pretty they are too at this time of year.

The trees have previously been home to the netted webs of bird cherry ermine moth, but no sign this year – again, maybe it’s been too cold for them.  Plus, looking back at my photos from 2018 I have a feeling that these guys are probably cyclical breeders, with a big outburst every few years. It’s good to see that the trees are none the worse for the onslaught.

Ermine moth caterpillars from 2018

And so it’s good to see the wood looking so good. The tennis and basketball courts have been resurfaced and repainted, and are looking very spruced up, just in time for the summer. The rickety old pavilion has finally been demolished, and I assume that some sort of café will spring up soon as well. My heart really does belong to Coldfall, but this area is a really valuable community resource, enjoyed by many people. Every little bit of green space has been a godsend during the lockdown, and I suspect that it’s opened a lot of people’s eyes to what’s happening right on their doorstep.

I also suspect that our good friends the N2 Community Gardening Group have been at work close to the entrance opposite the station – some lovely scabious have sprung up as if by magic! I’m sure the bees will be very grateful.