The birds of St. Ann's Well gardens

For James' birthday we spent the afternoon in St. Ann's Well Park, playing ping pong and lazing in the sun. There's a big board of all the birds you can see there, including sparrowhawks. We wondered if they were being a bit optimistic about that one. Just under this bird information board, there was a little thrush hopping about in the brush. This was the closest I've ever been to a thrush. They're smaller than I thought they were.

Later, as we lay on the grass, there were a number of swifts looping in the sky. They look like small black aeroplanes, gliding around casually, eating all the insects and airborne spiders. They sometimes sleep in the air.

Ed said the wood pigeons sounded like they were people doing impressions of wood pigeons.

Dino said that on the train he saw a seagull interrupt two kissing lovers to pillage their picnic.

Big Tom told us about the bird of prey centre he went to in Lindisfarne. They had Eagle Owls and he had a harrier hawk land on his arm. It made me jealous. We haven't been on any bird expeditions for a while. But we're going on holiday this week, so hopefully we'll have some interesting stories to bring back.

The view from my window

As I sit at the desk by my bedroom window, I can see a fair amount of wildlife, especially considering it's a suburban street just off the main road. We think there are house sparrows nesting in the bushes opposite. I can often here a lot of tweeting. It sounds like sparrows but I've never seen any, maybe it's the sound of baby blackbirds.

There are some very yappy dogs, a jangly cat and the other night I saw a cute little fox cub looking lost and scared. I've heard the vixens screaming in early Spring. They sound like seagulls. 


The blue African lilies that grew last year in the garden opposite are coming back. Only now do I notice their long tentacle stalks rising out of the bush. Their flowering is something to look forward to.

And then in the distance towards the sea, I can see the block of flats where the peregrines live. They are small black specks against the white of the building, but through the binoculars, I can make out the details of their high-contrast monochrome feathers.

The three young peregrines fledged probably about a month ago and the webcam shows an empty nestbox with bits of dead pigeons scattered around on the floor. Now the only views of the youngsters are through the binoculars and it's quite hard to tell them apart from the adults, they are pretty much the same size.

I've only managed to catch them flying around a few times this year. I hope to see them play-fighting in the air, flinging food to each other for practice.