Welcome to our lockdown blog
While we are closed to human guests, we thought we would introduce you to some of our non-human visitors and residents.
Clean air, relief from stressful noise and time to observe nature maybe the silver lining to the dark Covid cloud that hangs over us all.
Despite being in a metropolitan epicentre of the pandemic we are incredibly lucky to be surrounded by nature. we are also now reaping the benefits of 20 years of rewilding a little corner of East London. We hope it can be an example of what is possible and desirable for making our cities clean, healthy and joyful places to live.
So we’re sharing here and on our facebook and Instagram pages some of my photos of the beautiful birds and bats, butterflies and bees, as well as blossom and blooms all resident or visiting our garden and neigbouring park - St Georges Gardens.
Our humble Blackbird sings its sweet and varied song from dawn to dusk usually from the top of the willow tree and can be heard throughout the building.
7th April.
There is a veritable conventicle or mischief (group) of Magpies nesting in the row of Sorbus Aria (Whitebeam) trees here on Cable Street. There are 4 nests this year!
8th April
Supermoon over Shadwell - taken from our roof terrace at midnight. The advantage of clear pollution free sky.
12th April
My first sighting of a Peacock butterfly this Spring. Just woken from hibernation?
14th April
Polemoniaceae phlox - beautiful alpine in full crimson, flaming glory. creeping moss-like mountain plant of unknown variety growing in a little box on the roof terrace.
14th April.
Lots of butterflies out today in the garden including this Speckled Wood basking on a fox glove leaf in the warm sunshine.
15th April
Bluetit more concerned today with feathering it’s nest than feeding so maybe no hatchlings yet.
17th April
While its parents were away, I got a glimpse of this recently hatched wood pigeon. There is only one hatchling in the precarious nest within our berberis shrub but two more pairs are nesting close by.
19th April
Violet blue bearded Iris - Iris germanica.
Named after the Greek goddess, Iris - messenger of love who used the rainbow to travel between heaven and earth.
21st April
The Murder of Crows nesting high in the London Planes is diminished this year. Maybe just as well as there is a lot less to scavenge during lockdown but other birds need to vigilant as the crows will take their eggs and fledglings. They’re supposed to portend disaster but Corvids are the most intelligent birds.
23rd April
Long-tailed tit.
These fluffy, cute visitors are around all year.
They appear in a 'volery' of about 10 birds and chirping and chattering, they excitably flit and swoop around and then disappear as fast as they arrived.
26th April
The common house Sparrow. A real Cockney-Sparrow.
But sadly not so common anymore - numbers in towns and cities have declined by 60 per cent.
The sparrow is now red-listed as a species of high conservation concern.
After years of rarely seeing any, they've been appearing more in the garden this year and for the first time I managed to photograph this one today.
1st May
Climbing Rose - Etoile De Hollande
Happy May Day!
Celebrated in ancient Rome, Floraila Festival honoured Flora – Roman Goddess of flowers.
This year no May Queens or Morris dances and no dancing round the Maypole. But honouring all the NHS workers on International Workers' Day.
5th May
Starling murmurations in the London's Autumn skies are a truly magnificent spectacle although rarer now as numbers have plummeted by about two-thirds since the 1970s.
Usually seen as black against the sky, I was pleased to snap this one on the ground in St. Georges Gardens this morning revealing their shining multicoloured plumage.
11th May
The canoodling and cooing Wood Pigeons are never far away with 3 pairs nesting in and near our garden.
Some mate for life and are they’re mostly monogamous. In London they’re remarkably tame and in the spring love eating the fresh green shoots of our Ash tree.
14th May
Male and a juvenile Great Tits (Parus major).
They're very vocal and have adapted easily to urban and noise-polluted environments where its song has a higher frequency to stand out against the low frequency background noise - even during quiet lockdown.
16th May
Song Thrush or Mistle Thrush? They're hard to distinguish but its football-rattle like song gave it away. They are rare visitors but a pair have been around the last few days so I was pleased to capture this one here yesterday. Mistle Thrushes have decreased drastically over the past 10 years with only about 8 breeding pairs reported in London last year.
20th May
Cistus pulverulentus 'Sunset' (Magenta Rock Rose) flowering now on our roof terrace.
Each flower only lasts for 1 day but for weeks there are always more.
Named after the ancient lost town of Cisthene (possibly in Turkey) where Medusa lived and died.
Good host for Truffle mushroom and its aromatic resin is used to make perfume.
11th June
The offspring of our grandest avian neighbours. Yesterday the fledgling raptors (I think 2) started to venture away from the nest readying themselves for their maiden flight. A very dangerous moment in a young peregrine’s life.
The adult watches over its offspring. Peregrines are the fastest animals on earth with eyesight that can locate a small bird from 1 mile away. When it fixes its penetrating gaze on me through my camera lens, it pierces right through me. My 1000 m lens is nothing - it’s humbling. We’re incredibly lucky to have these awe-inspiring creatures coming to nest every year.
