FLAPPING
WINGS OVER TOTTERIDGE
In spite of encroaching development
in the suburbs of North London, the
Totteridge and Whetstone area still
has a wealth of birdlife although
several species common in the area
forty years ago are seldom seen today.
InBrook Farm in the early 1960s still
had skylarks soaring and singing in
spring, and cuckoos that, although
you may hear one in the distance now,
are nowhere in sight. The tawny owls,
sparrowhawks and kestrels once commonplace
are now much more rare, although still
to be seen if you are lucky and certainly
the familiar call of the owl can be
heard in the more wooded places. Looking
back now, it seems impossible that
the great numbers of house sparrows
have been reduced so much that it
is almost exciting to hear that once
irritating chirping as you walk to
the tube station.
Totteridge there is still a great
deal of sky and if, in the course
of your walks, you remember to lookup
you will see the occasional cormorant
winging its direct flight as if it
knows exactly where it is going (which,
of course ,it does) the leisurely
flapping of the heron’s wing
on its way across the golf course
to the long ponds, often interrupted
by the carrion crows who appear to
hate to see anything larger than themselves
in their airspace and the supremely
successful Canada Geese who have taken
advantage of their introduction to
“foreign “ shores to colonise
this country, leaving evidence of
their invasion by many paths. In the
last two or three years an osprey
has been sighted in the spring circling
the Baxendale lake apparently in the
hope of sustenance on its long journey
to Boat of Garten. Hobbies, small
streamlined hawks, have nested in
the Valley in recent years.
The golf course at South Herts has
mistle thrushes in some numbers and
the magnificent green woodpeckers
foraging on the ground for ants, the
laughing call enlivening many a round
of golf, whilst the handsome black,
white and red greater spotted woodpeckers
nest in the old holes in the trees
regularly and on very few occasions
the smallest of the European woodpeckers,
the lesser spotted (similar in size
to a house sparrow) can be seen. It
is many years since we have seen a
wryneck, once a regular visitor to
our garden on its way to warmer winter
sites, but this interesting bird still
travels south in the autumn and is
seen on farmland in Hertfordshire.
If you already keep garden watch from
your windows you will be familiar
with the titmice, blue, great, coal
and longtailed which are still numerous,
greenfinch, chaffinch, blackbird,
song thrush (now not so common) and
robin, but lookout for the not-so-ordinary
siskin on your nut feeders and the
goldfinches who come readily to niger
seeds and thistleheads with their
charming fluted call. Nuthatches,
acrobatic on the peanut bags are easily
recognised. We have not seen for some
years now a pair of the beautiful,
bright bullfinches in our garden,
but I am sure they are still about
in the less built-up parts of the
area. The common buzzard is moving
further to the east of this country
and has now been seen in Potters Bar
and the magnificent, and unmistakeable
red kites so successfully introduced
in Oxfordshire have now been spotted
in the sky over Chipping Barnet.
This is not by any means a complete
list of our local birds, but you will
realise there are great many more
if you do start looking; the spring
arrivals of swifts, swallow and house
martin and the elusive warblers (known
to bird watchers as LBJs 'little brown
jobs') usually identifiable only by
their songs, the over-wintering thrushes,
redwing and fieldfare, making bird-watching
worthwhile in any season of the year.
There will be flashes of brilliance
of the kingfisher along Dollis Brook,
and maybe you’ll find a woodcock
in your headlights as you arrive home
on a winter’s evening and perhaps
you’ll see a bird that has never
been recorded in South Hertfordshire
before! But even without these brilliant
exceptions you’ll still gain
enormous pleasure from watching and
getting to know the local birds who
do add life and interest to our gardens
and walks.
John and Sylvia Bigley
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