West Norwood Cemetery

A trip to the maginficent West Norwood Cemetery this afternoon, a peaceful and semi wild place, with notable mausoleums to Maxim Hiram, Henry Tate and The Doulton pottery family. Lots of birds as well, such as great tits and coal tits. Wonderful names I observed on the grave stones were Easton Binns, Curlieu Cornelius, Topaz Kyne and Captain Paddle.

Page 21 and 22

Frost on Peckham Rye, tree walk

This week has been a bit busy, what with preparing for a new term as an associate lecturer at the OU, but here are some images from the last week, including a frost on Peckham Rye last Tuesday and the tree walk in Sydenham  Hill Woods on Sunday. I also took part in the RSPB bird count, but did it on Streatham common, as you are allowed to use a green space, I at least saw a Goldcrest, and lots of Robins, blackbirds and song thrushes, I was a bit too late for the little owl.

The image below is from Horniman Gardens, I went to see Kurt Jacksons River exhibition in the museum, I loved many of his Avon and Thames paintings, as I know stretches of both those rivers very well, the Avon ones reminded me a lot of how it was to explore the river as a child in the long holidays at Bradford Upon Avon where my paternal grandparents lived.

Burry Port weekend

We spotted many wonderful birds during a great weekend with my brother, his wife and my sisters in Burry Port, Camarthenshire, Wales, where my brother lives. The highlight of the birdwatching was seeng a male and female kingfisher in the water going down to the sea at Burry Port, as well as a sparrow hawk in the Penybedd wood. 

There was a lot of snow visible in the distant Brecon Beacons, but it was clear and sunny during the days by the sea, I begin to understand what the Gulf Stream location represents - surprising warmth when out of the wind and in direct sunshine, even though there was ice on the ponds.

These are the birds I remember seeing, but there were probably quite a few more than this:

Green shank, kingfisher x 2, sparrow hawk, red shank, curlew, oyster catcher, common buzzard, green finch, linnet, rock pippet, pied wagtail, heron,  cormorant, little egret, herring gull, black headed gull, dunnock, ringed plover, common gull, skylark, blackbird, wren, starling, jackdaw, magpie, reed bunting, chaffinch, bullfinch, kites and buzzards galore on the M4 motorway.

The beautiful bird pictures were taken by my brother Adam Dare:

Above, Sparrow hawk (female ?), below, male kingfisher in Burry Port, below that a female kingfisher not far away in the harbour. It was also interesting to see the five memorials to Amelia Earhart, the American pilot who landed her seaplane in Burry Port in 1928, making her the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane, solo. One of my all time heroines, the next village seems to also make the same claim, can't wait to see how the forthcoming Hollywood biopic wIth Hilary Swank handles this episode!

Woodpecker holes?

Shortly after seeing a beautiful green woodpecker in Norwood grove I noticed these holes (below), they look rather delicate and precise, some drill holes you see online look much cruder, there were some of those as well, perhaps it depends on the woodpecker's personality traits?

Nuthatch and great spotted wood pecker

A beautiful blue sky today in contrast to yesterday, it was meant to snow lightly in Streatham last night but there was no sign of snow at all, it was pretty cold. I had a good walk through Belair, Dulwich Park and the woods, back through the top part of Crystal Palace park. Through binoculars I could clearly see lorries going over the Queen Elizabeth bridge , miles away near Rainham Marshes, it was a very clear day indeed, to the west I could see open fields and the high ridges of the North Downs. I find the view oddly saddening. Too much potential unfulfilled in one visible arc, all the places I never went to and things I didn't do, hundreds of square miles of deficit...
I had good views in Sydenham Hill woods of a nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker, two favourites. I saw a beautiful shelter and was tempted to move in.

Page 20 below:

It rains torrentially on Tuesdays. Page 19

I get drenched on Tuesdays riding my bicycle

Graphic novel pages 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Norwood Country Park

The Norwood Country Park is a large gem hidden beneath the Southern side of the Norwood ridge, it has reed beds and cycle paths as well as a large lake with lots of swans, ducks and geese, we saw a kestrel hovering above the park and then swooping down, struggling a little to stay level in the strong wind, as well as a tree with 11 magpies in it, a very striking image. I'll definitly come back here in the spring and summer.

Barcelona cafe 11 am

Then there was a sudden torrential down pour on the High Road.

Sydenham Hill Wood, Boyce Da Roca coffee shop Crystal Palace

oh so lovely to get some sun this afternoon for an hour or so in Sydenham Hill Woods, lots of noisy birds and muddy dogs, below the very eccentric and artisanal Boyce Da Rocca coffee shop this afternoon, Crystal Palace.

Beaulieu Heights and Stambourne Woodland Walk

The dreaded seasonal head cold and cough is getting very boring now so I wrapped up warm this morning and went to the small woodlands at Beaulieu Heights (Upper Norwood) and further along Auckland Road the undulating Stambourne Woodland, the drawing below is of the imposing St John the Evangelist on Auckland Road, there are also a number of magnificent Victorian Gothic Villas situated around this location and a house with a blue plaque for Raymond Chandler, author of the Big Sleep, who lived there from 1900 - 1904 while he studied at Dulwich College. I really like these miniature wilderness sites, tucked beneath the ridges of Norwood and full of secretive trees and foxes, they must provide habitats as well as corridors for lots of wildlife. I saw only three other people, right in the middle of the day not far from the centre of Crystal Palace.

M

Graphic novel pages 12 & 13.

Tawnys hooted in the mist

Last night my sister, brother in law and friend looked for Tawnys in Sydenham hill wood, but a thick mist suddenly engulfed the glade, but we did hear them, and also the shriek that might indicate their territorial power struggles.  I guess they were flying along the edge of the golf course, the acoustics in the wood are very effective, especially by the tunnel. Earlier I spotted the peacock that is often heard from within the woods, he must live in the grounds of Beltwood house, but was yesterday standing like a cat in the cold waiting to be let into a house in Crescent Wood Road. Peacocks have lived there since I was a child and probably before, when the Beatles reputedly owned Beltwood. The woods are very muddy at the moment as you can see from my boots!
We also heard a Green Woodpecker and Goldcrests.

 Below, looking towards the misty woods from Norwood Park.

Heard tawny owls near the orchard, Streatham Common/Norwood Grove

Last night we went over to Biggin Wood at dusk to see if there were any Tawny Owls, as a friend of mine said he had heard them in there, but instead there were a lot of paraketes and crows, no hoots to be heard above the raucous din, but it is a lovely small wood, mainly of sessile oaks I think. The moon was 3/4 full so it made for quite a spooky night. On the way back down Covington Way we saw two foxes, but also heard the unmistakeable hoots of what sounded like two or three tawnys, moving over the trees from near Gibson's Hill towards the orchard part of the Common, there was also a shrill "mweet" cry interspersed with the hoots, we wondered if it was either foxes or the aggressive shriek of Tawnys challenging each other over territory, definitely worth returning at dusk on a dry night to see if they make themselves visible, great to know they are in Streatham still. We heard them at about 17:20, late, but it was a very bright night.

Below, Biggin Wood last night. 

A nice factoid I read the other day, a Druid, in Welsh,  derwydd,  means "oak knower".

Two tawny owls, New Year's day, Sydenham Hill Woods

This New Year's day evening, about 12 minutes after dusk (which was at 16:02) Lesley and I saw two Tawny owls, first, like before, we heard them calling to each other over several minutes, the sound grew louder until a very large tawny owl flew down towards us, I think it was the one we saw before, shortly after followed by another, slightly smaller one, this owl we saw twice, then they went silent and we lost sight of them,  what a great start to 2015! I also had the pleasure of bumping into my niece Rosie and her friends in the woods, London is like an idyllic village sometimes!

I was trying to articulate the significance of seeing owls, and struggled, until I read this, which sums it up so well, only the quote below is about wrens, the king of the birds (as the name implies in many languages apparently):

"The wren symbolised wisdom and divinity. It is difficult to actually see a wren. At New Year it is said that  the apprentice Druid would go out by himself into the countryside in search of hidden wisdom. If he found a wren he would take that as a sign that he would be blessed with inner knowledge in the coming year. Finding a creature small and elusive to the point of invisibility was a metaphor for finding the elusive divinity within all life".  (From The White Goddess)

Fox howling like a wolf

Last night on Denmark Hill, just past the "Fox on the Hill" pub, three of us first saw a fox then heard it howl like a wolf, something I've never heard a fox do before. Having watched the wonderful snow wolf documentary the night before I was very struck by how eerily wolf-like this cry was. It wasn't at all like the disturbing 'banshee call' of a vixen, but a head thrown-back wolf howl. Bruce Doran at Ask a Scientist says:

"Foxes belong to a group of mammals known as canids, which includes wolves, coyotes, jackals, and dogs. Like all canids, foxes can bark, growl, yelp, and howl. They produce these sounds whenever they're attracting mates (howls), during territorial disputes (growls), warning pups of danger (barks), or pups having fun with other members of their family (yelps)."   http://www.cool-science.ca/article/3548

Don't believe the myriad sites that claim foxes can't or don't howl, we heard it!

View from the flat window in Denmark Hill towards the fireworks on the South Bank, they were really beautiful, at one point the sky was filled with Poppies of red light for the First World War anniversary,  thank you to our gracious host for sharing this view !