SYDENHAM HILL WOOD 16TH April 2023
Sydenham Hill Wood is a ten hectare site running North to South based around a railway line once serving the Crystal Palace, flanked on the eastern side by sloping Victorian gardens. Saved from a building development by an uprising of local dissidence, this brownfield site remains in Southwark Councils hands and managed as a Local Nature Reserve by London Wildlife Trust. Predominantly made up of deciduous mature woodland Sydenham Hill Wood displays palimpsests of distant and near pasts. Carpets of wood anemone, red dead nettle and bluebells mix together with bamboo, cedar of lebanon and a folly, remnants of ancient woodland amongst a hotchpotch of railwayana and Victorian suburban gardens.
For our walk the weather remained benign, the woods sheltering us from any wind and the noise pollution from the adjacent south circular road, as we gathered opposite St. Peter`s (now Deeper Life) Church hoping for views of Kestrels which have bred successfully on the tower for at least twenty years. Although they were noted by their absence we were soon surrounded by the bourgeoning presence of spring. Hazel catkins glistering in the mid-morning light, a gentle swinging shimmering canopy amongst the budding beech and, blackthorn. As we peered through this natural tasselled backdrop we were enthralled by act one of the avian music hall, the Jackdaw show.
Records demonstrate that this species was a rare flyover in the area until around 8 years ago when on the back of the successful, seemingly exponential, rise of parakeets they infiltrated once woodpecker holes enlarged by the Psittaculae. Locally at least, this appears to have stemmed the parakeets rampant increase and the group delighted in a low-rise corvid conurbation found opposite the church, one nest being only 10 feet high and the other no more than 18 inches above. You have to love a Jackdaw with that cheeky blue eye and grey shroud, like a naughty verger sneaking a glance at the collection plate. We had wonderful views of a continual procession of the two pairs nest building, whilst the parakeets jealously looked on admiring their industry and impudence.
Amongst this crow spectacular two Nuthatches joined the performance on a neighbouring branch, their agitated behaviour soon turning into a full blown romance. In an act of mass voyeurism all eyes and lenses were arrested by nature`s explicitiness; Nuthatches mating is a rare scene indeed.
As we moved through the wood Blackcaps abounded, their scratchy song intros exploded into a joyful flutiness, the melody and tone giving rise to the epithet Mock Nightingale, a vinyl record`s hiss before the musical groove. Chiffchaffs joined in the migrant chorus, their repetitive metallic tinkle lapsing into gentle pseep pseep calls. https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/blog/dave-clark/chiffchaff-springs-delightful-harbinger
Further on we approached the railway tunnel where a sonorous Song Thrush entranced us with its whoops, jingles and whistles, the vocalisations cutting through the determined full voiced trilling of wrens and neurotic robins. It was heartening to see male Blackbirds establishing and reinforcing territories as the Wood had experienced a monumental population crash of our popular songsters, with no breeding pairs confirmed last season due to the continuing effects of the Usutu virus.
Over the railway bridge the woods change character with an influx of cultivated plants and more widespread growth of conifers. An early morning recce had excitingly produced the song of a Firecrest in a large Yew atop the railway cutting. So it was with hope and trepidation that we stopped at the same tree some two hours later and were rewarded with views of a male, if a little fleetingly, along with Goldcrests busily feeding. Like a tailor`s fingers all gentle movement and unsettled energy, tiny and ephemeral, fleetingly flitting across the tree`s edges.
In the same area a Coal Tit sang, often seen in mixed flocks with the crests in this part of the wood its insistent chiming was a fitting end to a Sunday morning that had been filled with springs exuberance.
A happy group of fifteen, we sauntered back with a morning`s memories and for me at least tea and cake seemed appropriately on my mind.
Dave Clark April 2023
Twitter: daveclark77
Blog: https://ornithologybirdsurbanenvironment.home.blog/
LWT: https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/nature-reserves/sydenham-hill-wood-and-coxs-walk
Daves thoughts 