As we wave a fond farewell to the Tate Modern peregrines for another year, work now starts on our next Aren't birds brilliant! [Abb!] project; Ducking and diving on Hampstead Heath.
We'll be setting up our gear near pond 15 on the Heath in October to showcase the wonderful wildlife that lives there. There are ducks, geese, swans, kestrels, moorhens and coots plus cormorants and much, much more. If you manage to get any good photos of wildlife, please do send them in to london@rspb.org.uk so we can share them. For more information on the Hampstead Heath Abb! please call us on 020 7808 1260.
BBC London is running a photo gallery of birds of prey and you can send your images there. We have a growing number of these birds in London with an impressive list of visitors too, like Michael Croft's red kite spotted in a Hackney garden. Sadly this youngster didn't stay and was mobbed by crows and other birds until it fled back to the country. We believe it was seeking a territory of its own and had probably come from the Chilterns, where red kites are plentiful. Maybe 2008 will be the year they settle in the Capital? The RSPB reintroduced these rare birds of prey to the Chilterns, they've successfully bred, but stubbornly refuse to leave this small area.
I've another good link for you this week. We've produced some posters with the local Guardian series of papers covering north-east London (Woodford, Wanstead and Waltham Forest Guardians) featuring Garden Birds. If you can't get hold of a copy of the paper, visit their website where they will be offerring free downloads for you to print-off. The online poster will be in two A4 sized sheets rather than the single newspaper sized one in the Guardian. It's the first in a mini-series with wetland birds and wildlife gardening posters to follow.
This coming weekend you can come and talk to us at the Landmark Eco-Fair in Teddington's Ferry Road, TW1 9NN. It runs Saturday and Sunday, We'll have a stand near the main stage with a display about our work on climate change. Some people have asked what the RSPB has got to do with energy use or transport. The answer is that climate change poses a huge threat to all wildlife and yet there are simple actions we can all undertake that will better equip birds and other wildlife to cope with this problem. We've just produced a new document posing twenty tough questions and giving twenty rough answers. You can donload it by following the link above.
Always keen to demonstrate how words translate in to action we've been working with the Cleveland Square Residents Association in Bayswater to improve their city square for wildlife. Apart from adding feeders and bird boxes we've advised planting schemes and management techniques that help wildlife survive and thrive. It's a private square not open to the public but a valuable space for wildlife.
If you'd like to see a wildlife garden and some of the ideas in action, you can drop in to our Wild in the Parks garden in Regent's Park, next to the tennis courts. It's free and shows how you can have car parking space, flower borders and space to relax in, while also creating a variety of habitats for insects, amphibians, birds and mammals. The garden is maintained, and was created, by volunteers and community groups with some design input from children at surrounding schools. It's a great place for a picnic in the park, especially with the tennis court cafe nearby.
If you'd like to find out more about volunteering with the RSPB in London, call Amy Symons on 020 7808 1254 or email: Amy.Symons@rspb.org.uk.