Birds in Forest Hill

The type that go tweet, obviously.

Our move to Forest Hill over a year ago came with a lovely garden. And we have been enjoying the birdsong at dawn and dusk, as well as watching our feathered friends come down to feed (gorge) on our bird seed and peanuts. But other than those loud green parakeets, and the odd pigeon I have no idea what I’m looking at. I just can’t tell my tits from my swifts.

So can you all help me out? Can you identify, with a picture those birds commonly seen in Forest Hill? Can we create our own ornithology? Let’s make Audubon proud!

I’ll start. Here are the wonderful green flashes I see in the treetops. Shame their sound isn’t as lovely as their plumage.

Here are the ones I see regularly in my garden:

Along with the more easily identifiable blackbirds, magpies, crows and robins.

The Bird HD app is great for identifying bird species.

Ah Wrens. I think those are the ones I see in abundance. They flit from the cover of my overgrown clematis to the bird feeder and back again. Lovely little things.

It’s easy to identify wrens by their hoppity bouncing flight, and the fact their little tails are always turned right up. They are also incredibly loud for their size.

seen quite a few nice birds in forest hill myself. Especially on the high street in the recent sunny days

Two fairly common ones not mentioned, though we only get Goldfinches if we have niger seed out.

Goldfinch

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Nuthatch - pretty much always upside down jumping around tree stumps

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I guess useful for me as well would be how to attract some of these into the garden. Now I just buy a bog standard feeder wlith bog standard feed. Do some of these need special stuff?

My experience:

Firstly the squirrels eat everything, I got guardman dome protector for my feeder.

Woodpeckers have only ever had peanuts and fat in the half coconut shells. Same for nuthatches.

Goldfinches will only eat niger seed.

Sunflower seeds always seem popular.

Blackbirds and Robins generally only eat food on the ground.

Tits seem to eat pretty much anything.

I’ve seen it recommended to not provide full pea nuts, especially when there are young ones around.

It sometimes takes a few weeks for feeders to be discovered.

Those fat balls of various sizes seem to be loved by most birds.

The rspb site Rachael linked from has loads of info (and more educated info than mine).

A water table or pond will likely greatly increase the number of birds also.

Good luck!

outside the garden, but just down the road on the Pool River there are ducks, moorhen, kingfisher, a grey heron (hangs out by river near Bellingham Play Park) and yesterday saw a smaller heron type, a rather beautiful Little Egret, a comparative newcomer to UK, wading at the confluence of the Pool and the Ravensbourne.

What about swifts?
I had a chat today with the lovely Rebecca from the Forest Hill & Lewisham Borough Swift Group
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1700377583561148?ref=bookmarks

I am planning to put a swift box on my house, as my street is a bit of a swift hotspot, but numbers are declining - often due to roof works & loft conversions destroying nesting sites. It’s really lovely seeing them all swooping around in the summer. A basic box is only £15 and then you need to fix it up just under the roof line.

You won’t get them on the bird feeder though - they eat flying insects!

And here is a useful chart to help you identify swifts / swallows / house martins:

Swifts don’t perch on phone wires etc as they are mainly on the wing.

Do you know which side they should be facing ? Is South too hot?

North, west or east facing walls are best as otherwise it can get too hot inside the boxes, however there are white painted boxes which can deflect the sun’s rays but these are a bit more expensive. Placing the boxes under the eaves helps shade them too.

Just to qualify I am not a swift expert! I am quoting from Rebecca’s guide - she has put a very comprehensive guide to swift boxes on her Facebook page.

Whereabouts are the parakeets round here then? Don’t think I have ever spotted any!

All the local parks are full of them. You’ll see them in gardens too depending on the trees you have. I see them stopping and passing go through my garden quite often. Before my cherry tree died they spent a lot of time in it, eating the leaves.

We have two very rall trees at the back of the garden and they flit between the two in the high branches.

What a great idea!
I have window feeders attached to my bedroom window and get lots of birds coming up to the window. It took a long time for them to know it was there - like 6 months. But now I can get to see them up close. We get robins coming, blue tits, great tits, parakeets, starlings, wood pigeons, jays, woodpeckers, goldfinches - it is a feast!

I have also seen on more than one occasion now red kites flying over my house. I was looking for the swifts and three red kites flew over!!!

Other birds in the garden I see are blackcaps and robins. I wish wish wish there were owls. House sparrows are also making a comeback.

Yes the guide is now up on the groups Facebook page as well as a guide on the boxes available to buy. I wanted to put it up here but not sure how?

You’re more than welcome to post it here.

Instructions

Thanks Chris - it is now up on the original post page.

Just had baby starlings land on my windowsill!!! Very cute.

If you don’t think you’ve seen parakeets, look up when you hear 2+ birds screeching to one another, and you’ll see these darts flying by. If you get a book called Birdsong, it has pictures and one of those press-button players. You’ll hear the most recognisable tweet of all, the wren’s long, loud, varied song always with a trill towards the end. Stunning.

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Saw some of these in my garden yesterday, Long tailed tits. Very cute

Not birds - but I think I’ve seen bats flitting about at dusk, anyone else?

I’ve not seen them around the house, but there are bat colonies around the area. There is a sizable on in Sydenham Hill Forest based in the old railway tunnel. I gather there may also be one in Dacres Wood. Seems reasonable the bats would hunt around the area.

Good few bats flying around the side of the hill from Waldenshaw up to Horniman. We used to sit outside at dusk in summer and watch them flying around.

Was just watching this fine fellow collect food from the lawn. Common but not our list I think…

Anyone know what this is? I have guessed at a juvenile Jay but it looked much bigger, though was pretty far up in a tree so I may have misjudged.

Its a Jay, which is the Crow, Corvid family

The swifts are back! They seem to prefer the Vale side of the tracks as they nest in Wynell Road (runs parallel with Mayow Road at the PV end) and Kilmorie Road (Stanstead Road end). No known nest site on the west side of the railway although someone claims to have seen 10 over Grassmount.

Lewisham Swifts is encouraging people to report swift sightings to them so they can plot them on a borough-wide map:

Yes, the swifts are back! Swifts are known to be nesting in Forest Hill (in Kilmorie Road off Stanstead Road and in Wynell Road off Perry Vale) and are a common sight (and sound) in the skies above those areas. Swifts are summer visitors to the UK; they migrate here to nest and reproduce and are only seen from May to August.

Lewisham Swifts is inviting people to look out for swifts and report their sightings to us so that we can record them on a Lewisham-wide map.

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You can also listen out for them - they have a distinctive ‘screaming’ call and there is an audio clip on the RSPB swift page. We have information on our blog about how to report swift sightings to us and, if you’re really keen, how to volunteer to do a swift survey.

Swift numbers have been declining for years. One of the reasons is that swifts nest in buildings (eg in roof soffits) but modern building materials don’t have small spaces that swifts can nest in. Swifts pair for life and return to the same nest year after year. Swift enthusiasts across the UK are trying to reverse the decline by finding swift nests and engaging with building owners to let them know how to protect their nests. Installing nest boxes or ‘swift bricks’ near an existing swift colony also helps to increase the number of potential nest sites. 10 swift nest boxes were installed at the top of Wynell Road earlier this month in a joint initiative between Lewisham Swifts, Lewisham Homes and the Forest Hill Fire Brigade.

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Lewisham Swifts was originally called the “Forest Hill and Lewisham Swift Group” and was created three years ago by a Wynell Road resident who had swifts nesting near her own home. The group is now spreading its attention borough-wide but as the Wynell and Kilmorie colonies were the original inspiration for creating the group, SE23 pride is at stake if we are to maintain our position as the borough’s pre-eminent swift supporters. So please do look out for swifts and let us know if you see them. We’re particularly keen to find nest sites in other parts of Forest Hill, especially on the west side of the railway as we’re not aware (yet!) of any swifts nesting there. Thank you!

On a short walk today I saw a tiny bird with a prominent yellow chest. From this post it would appear to be a tit, but seemed a lot smaller than the 12cm described in the link. It looked a bit like the juvenile described as it didn’t have a prominent crest. Could it be a juvenile tit a this time of the year?

I suspect a blue tit - they are quite small!

We heard an owl somewhere in the gardens between Tewkesbury avenue and Ringmore Rise 2 weeks ago. It twitwooed for at least an hour. Couldn’t see him of course

I’ve also seen a red kite fly over! Was so pleased to read this comment as I thought perhaps I’d gone mad as you just don’t expect to see them.

My favourite local birds are the beautiful jays. Wish we had a few less of the parakeets though to be honest.

When I was helping to build the new block of flats on Dacres Road we were often straffed by parakeets. On one such day I had my level up aginst the blockwork I’d built, checking to see if the wall was plumb. As I was looking at the bubble and hitting the blockwork with the handle of my trowel I looked back up at the bubble and a parakeet was perched on the top of my spirit level, calmly looking down at me.

I would love to see more parakeets in my garden. Someone once suggested putting fruit on a platform. I saw a house near Perry Vale do just that in their front garden. I may try to see if this works.

Heard an owl last night int the early hours. No doubt.

Not a lot know that the two-part tawny owl call is in fact a call and response involving two birds. The male starts off with the usual aim vis-à-vis the female; to wit, to woo.

(Thanks to Chris Packham, I believe)

Would love to see an owl in the wild. Supposedly some in South Norwood Country park and possibly Beckenham Place Park which are not far from SE23.

Anyway, here is a much more common bird from today, a blue tit! It’s very dull and grey at the moment!

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I have a communal area at the back of our garden, and saw this Heron just wandering about. I guess he was looking for a pond but when I first saw him he was by a picnic bench…(I should add I say he but could be a her - no idea)

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Beautiful creatures and incredibly patient and skilful catchers of fish, I used to work next to water and enjoyed watching these birds - they can stand still next to a stream or pool for ages, then suddenly strike very quickly and almost always come up with a fish.

This was it wandering around

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And yes, I used to have 10 fairly big goldfish and 2 koi in my pond. Free sushi breakfast. I’m not particularly happy.

Parakeets will nest in this tree it looks like, I think squirrels periodically nest in these in this area also (they did last year anyway).

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An egret in the Pool River

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