This year’s Spring Walk was led by Daniel Greenwood from the London Wildlife Trust. We were expecting heavy rain but in the end the sun came out and we had a beautiful sunny morning. Seven people came (despite the terrible weather forecast) and we started in the “wild area” of DKH Open Space. Here, flitting above the brambles we saw some ground nesting birds including a red listed (i.e. a bird that is in decline or globally threatened) song thrush, some dunnock and black cap. The presence of such a large number of nest sites in this tiny area puts into question the viability of a pond: why destroy one special habitat to create another? We need to carefully consider the pond.
In the park we admired the meadow that creates a diverse understorey to the orchard. We need to check what type of oak was planted there as there was a worry that it may be Turkey oak and therefore not native (and invasive). We watched a speckled wood butterfly in the sun and were pleased to see a great tit flying out of one of the wooden bird boxes.
In the wood we saw blackbirds flying around and closer to the ground we found wild garlic, wood avens and dog violet.
Again this year we had permission to go onto the Greendale fields. This is always a treat as the untouched area is a haven for wildlife and the diverse species found in there are quite different to those in the tamer park and denser wood. The star of the show this year was the whitethroat – a migrant warbler that migrates from Africa. This bird is not seen in many places in central London (the nearest other place we know of is Crystal Palace park). There were also several swifts flying overhead – some of the first sightings in the area this year.
Here’s a breakdown of what we saw and where:
Wild Area in DKH Open Space
- song thrush (red listed)
- dunnock (amber listed)
- wren
- black cap
- blackbird
Park
- Speckled wood butterfly
- Great tit
DKH Wood
- Blackbird
- wood aven
- wild garlic
- dog violet
Greendale Fields
- yellow meadow ants
- song thrush
- house sparrow
- whitethroat
- swifts
- green veined butterfly
- cranesbill
- vetch
A big thank you to Daniel for taking the time to take us on the walk and share his knowledge with us.