Category: nature

Help with hedge planting

Posted on by Madeleine

The Biodiversity Group are planting a small hedge by the Effra Play Centre this Wednesday (28th November). They initially planted a small number of hedging bushes on the inside of the railings, last year, with the help of the Community Payback team. Now they need to infill the gaps where the bushes failed.

They will be planting additional hedging plants along the outside of the fence so that the Play Centre has a hedge ‘screen’ so the children can play in the newly renovated area in front of the Effra building.

They need help! It is a bit cold and muddy but if you can come along and do a couple of hours – they would be very grateful. No experience is necessary and they have the wonderful Richard Jedrzejczak guiding the group.

They start at 10.30am and you will find the group by the Effra Play Centre, or you will see the TCV van a short walk up by the Brockwell Gate entrance. Dress up warm and wear sensible shoes or boots.

Mushroom foray in Brockwell Park

Posted on by Madeleine

Now that autumn is in the air, how about a mushroom foray in Brockwell Park?  Pull on your wellies, wrap up warmly and go discover those beautiful earthy creatures with the help of our guide, Fabrice, Community Gardener at Myatts Fields Park Project Group. Meet at 2pm on Sunday 14 October at the clock tower in Brockwell Park.

Come and celebrate Brockwell Park’s trees

Posted on by Madeleine

You are invited to our annual tree celebration in Brockwell Park this Sunday June 17. We start at 2pm at the clock tower next to the cafe on the hill. It’s a wonderful and moving occasion when we walk around each tree donated in the last 12 months and hear the story of why it was planted. We will be joined by the new Mayor, Cllr Christopher Wellbelove, and Mayoress, Mrs Anne Sassoon.

Each Brockwell Park tree has a story.

Thank you to perimeter fence volunteers

Posted on by Madeleine

You could spy toiling hedge-layers working on the perimeter fence in Brockwell Park recently. Thank you to everyone who helped dig, plant and trim our environmentally friendly fence, which will be a haven for local wildlife. Do admire their handiwork if you are walking up from the playground, just before the Cressingham Gardens Estate.

The Community Partnership asked for volunteers to help finish the perimeter fence.

Hear the dawn chorus in Brockwell Park

Posted on by Madeleine

Join us for an early start on 15 April in beautiful Brockwell Park for a guided walk, led by RSPB Central London Group. At 6am, we will walk round part of the park to see what birds are about and listen to their songs and calls. We expect to hear song and mistle thrushes, blackbirds, robins, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, great tits and blue tits, to name a few. Other possibilities include great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch and blackcap. We’ll also see several species of water birds at the ponds.

Birds: it’s worth sacrificing a bit of sleep to see them.

We have been given permission to enter the park before it opens to the public, and there should be a special peaceful atmosphere at this time. We will start the walk at 6am and we expect it to last for one and a half to two hours. (A nearby cafe opens at 8am if anyone fancies a well-earned coffee!)

The leaders of the walk will be Czech Conroy and Graeme Hutchinson, two members of this RSPB group’s Executive Committee. They both live locally.

Buses 3, 196, 68, 468 and 37 all stop nearby. If coming by car, you’ll probably have to park in a side street nearby.

Meet at the Herne Hill Gate entrance to the park on 15 April at 6am. This gate will be opened temporarily just for this walk. However, please note that the other park gates will be shut until the normal opening time of 6.30am. The event is free although donations to the park are always welcome. Do bring a pair of binoculars if you possess them.

Volunteers needed for March 27 hedge-laying duties

Posted on by Madeleine

Would you like to help finish the hedge laying in Brockwell Park, creating a beautiful, environmentally friendly fence? On Tuesday 27 March between 10:30 and 15:30, we need volunteers literally on the ground. There is a team leader and coffee and tea are provided. Meet at the fence. Please wear sensible boots and clothes.

 

Song Thrush

Posted on by Madeleine

At the beginning of January this year, when walking in Brockwell Park, I saw a song thrush. Unmistakeable in its slim, elegant outline, whitish speckled front and greyish back. Shy, flying away straightway as I neared on the path. Too early in the year for her song, though.

Quite different from the female blackbird, semi-tame, who would continue her listening and prodding in the grass as I would near and pass; and dressed in rusty brown plumage, and plump. Up in the trees, blackbirds are calling from early before dawn.

Quite different again from the last time I saw a song thrush in the park,  probably late April or early May, four years ago. A tragic drama was playing out. Two heavy black-billed crows were raiding the thrush’s nest, with the thrush screeching frantically, fluttering around, ineffectually. I had not seen one since, though looking forlornly.

This morning’s sighting reminded me of words quoted by Sir David Attenborough on a BBC ‘Tweet of the day’ a few years back, when introducing the Song Thrush: words from ‘Home thoughts from abroad’ by Robert Browning, second stanza:

II.

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops, at the bent spray’s edge,
That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower
Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

I hope we shall hear the song thrush in Brockwell Park again this May.

Edward Lavender, FoBP Committee Member