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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Nature notes in January: damp days and a promise of Spring on a street tree

These days of damp and cold can be tough on the mental health after Christmas but this promise of Spring days to come on Mattison was a mood lifter

[Mattison Road, 9th January 2018]

Mind you, a silver tree, still winter sleeping, outlined against a bright blue January sky with dramatic, glowing white clouds can be pretty breath taking too:

[Burgoyne Road, 5th January 2018]

Tags for Forum Posts: january, nature notes, street trees

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Great pictures Liz.

My little magnolia tree has tiny buds on it already. And I saw a slightly larger one on Pemberton Road which was sheltered by a bay window and was already flowering!


Thanks Julie. There's bulbs pushing through in places too and the campanula by my gate has flowers. There are hazel catkins in Railway Fields. 

I'm a bit worried about all these early arrivals and another cold snap. We have some wild garlic in flower in our little garden too!

These hazel catkins in my neighbour's garden were snapped on 2nd January.  Not much else showing here apart from the tips of various bulbs sticking up and a white hebe in flower.

Saw two parakeets on our feeder in our garden in Kimberley Gardens. First time I've seen them locally, although a friend in West London sees flocks of them daily. Anyboidy else had any sightings? I would like to know how widespread they are, or are becoming.

There are few sightings mentioned on HoL. I haven't seen a parakeet since the photos I posted in Nov 2016.

I'm hoping the two I saw are a breeding pair and not just a couple of singletons. They are a colourful bird and I would like to see more around. I'm not sure how much they may be considered a pest, any more than any other wild bird.

There’s a whole flock recently arrived in our gardens between Tancred, Lothair and Endymion Road. I’ve seen a fair few in Finsbury Park recently too. Someone in Tancred has a window bird feeder in their first floor window and they seem to love that. Really enjoy watching them swoop up to get the seeds and hovering as they feed. Unusual for bigger birds to eat from a feeder like that. They’re such a pretty splash of colour but noisy beggars. 

Daily sightings/hearings in the back gardens next to Railway Fields, small group pictured here, taken 5 mins ago. Resident since at least Summer/Autumn 2016. Have counted as many as a dozen.

As for ecological risk, there's a write-up here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain

Alternatively, this from August 2016, two months after That Vote:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3764383/Should-cull-squawki...

Headline:  Should we cull the squawking parakeets? 50,000 of them are threatening British birds, gobbling crops – and they are breeding like crazy

Thanks Gordon. Very interesting.

I wonder when birds which become established here stop being 'invasive'. I think Nigel Farage is thinking the same thing about immigrants. Note the Daily Mail Quote. I find the term 'feral' parakeets perjorative. All wild birds are feral, aren't they. We have lots of feral goldfinches on our feeders.

Indeed the newspaper article is stuffed full of pejorative terms - I began to think the journalist was attempting a sort of reverse 'Animal Farm', doing down the parakeets with everything to hand.

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