Has anyone else seen dragonflies (or damsel flies - I can’t tell the difference) in the area? I saw one a few weeks ago over front gardens on Perry Rise and earlier this week there was one over my back garden (near junction of Perry Rise/Vale). I assume it/they are coming from the Pool River about 1km away, or possibly the ponds at Dacres Wood.
The London Wildlife Trust website has a link for reporting sightings:
and also for reporting sightings of stag beetles, kestrels and owls.
Which reminds me, has anyone heard about the Peregrine Falcons in Lewisham town centre? I thought I saw a bird of prey on the Citibank building one evening last week and I’ve just Googled and there is in fact a purpose-built nest box for Peregrine Falcons on the roof, so it must have been either one of the parents or the fledglings that I saw. I was at the bus stop outside the police station and apparently that is a good place to view them from:
We get very large dragonflies. Also tiny frogs. There are several foxes using our garden as a place to sun themselves, though I think the den is next door. I feel honored whenever they’re in the garden. Have never seen a hedgehog, unfortunately.
Unfortunately he was forced to become a refugee after being hunted by a cat and was evacuated after spending some 20 mins under bin lid protection due to the unwanted attentions of said cat who made every effort to prise the frog from its place of safety
We always get lots of frogs in the garden, you don’t need a massive pond, mine is literally a bucket sunk into the ground with some pond iris growing in it (which makes a nice plant in itself) and some stones around the edge for shelter. Hopefully the frogs help with the local slug population!
I will try and get a photo (when it stops raining…)
Here is one of our frogs, sitting on an old space hopper. It was inside a wooden box with some other old garden toys and the frogs seemed to take a real liking to it (I guess it was cat-safe) and it I couldn’t bear to clear it out! The box fell apart this year so I’ve been trying to make some new spaces for the frogs.
We have the same - well smaller! Literally a plan seed tray, filled with water, few stones and one plant, put in the shade of the shed. Put tadpoles and froglets I’d raised in the house in an aquarium in it. Had a look tonight, 1 large frog in there, 1 must be from last year and a couple from this year in there. They are not eating enough slugs mind you! Will try and get picture tomorrow.
Yes you really don’t need a massive pond - I think sometimes people are wary of ponds because of children, but you can get quite a lot of wildlife in just a very small bucket / tray which poses no danger at all.
So here is ours, this is about 1/4 of the size so not big. I have a 2 year old and am \ was worried about having a pond (I filled in our pre-kid one ) and so on this one although it is very small I have a metal grate over it (I had it spare from one of those pop up greenhouses), with a heavy plant pot on top so it can’t be moved and some rocks which also provide cover for the frogs. I can sleep and the frog maybe get some extra protection. I’ve let the grass grow longer around it so they get some cover. Not very easy to see due to bad photo, but there are 4 frogs in there!
It probably bred in the pond in Dacres Wood, which is about 200m away - I spoke to Lewisham’s Ecology officer about this, and it seems no one quite knows how newts and other amphibians manage to travel such distances from where they breed.
Set me thinking about the size of their inside legs - maybe 5 mm? On which basis, it’s walked the equivalent of about 30 km for a human.
) and so on this one although it is very small I have a metal grate over it (I had it spare from one of those pop up greenhouses), with a heavy plant pot on top so it can’t be moved and some rocks which also provide cover for the frogs. I can sleep and the frog maybe get some extra protection. I’ve let the grass grow longer around it so they get some cover. Not very easy to see due to bad photo, but there are 4 frogs in there!
