June 13 from Sophie: the blackbird chicks fledged this morning! Suddenly the parents are acting quite strangely. They are both attacking any woodpidgeon in the vicinity, the female managed to peck out some tail feathers of a woodpidgeon in a mid-air swoop. The chicks can be heard squeaking on the ground where they have hidden themselves. UPDATE: 4pm and one of the chicks has flown onto the branch of a nearby tree. The photo shows a little ball of fluff – look carefully right in the middle. The parents are still protecting the chicks by flying at the woodpidgeons – anyone passing the south east end of Battlebridge Basin, if you see a woodpidgeon please chase it away!
June 10 from Sophie: Here’s the male blackbird, gob so full of worms for the chicks I keep thinking he’ll not be able to take off!
June 7 from Sophie. Not much of a photo I know, but this is where the Battlebridge Court Blackbirds have sited their second nest of the year. The adults seem to be chasing the juveniles from their first batch of chicks away from their territory whilst they concentrate on feeding the newly hatched chicks… or at least, that’s what I think is happening!
June 6 From Will: hoorah – my greenfinch was back today on seed feeder. I also notice that the very fine canary food I put out on the suspended bird table goes much faster than the standard wild bird feed. About 8 starlings are now early morning regular grazers in the park.
May 31 from Sophie: It has taken many years to entice them in, but they’ve been here for a few years now… Our cockney sparras, the house sparrow, nest in a lovely bay tree on the canal. They flit all over the place for food and I managed to get a shot this afternoon showing two fledglings being fed by an adult.
May 31 from Will: In Bingfield Park, built in the late 1970s on the cleared site of one of london’s worst slums, we have: starlings grazing in the early morning, blackbirds fighting furiously over territory, magpies (already with a large aggressive youngster they take into the park to feed), one greenfinch (looking lost), and three great tits that feed on my bird feeders. The squirrels have so far destroyed three bird feeders, but the two that claimed to be squirrel proof are still going strong.
May 31 from Sophie: Bee feeding on campanulas in a hanging basket this morning, 31 May. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust are doing a survey of british bees this year so I sent them this photo and they replied: "The bumblebee in your photo is a white-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). This is one of Britain’s commonest species and is able to make use of a wide range of garden flowers for food. The ‘yellow loveheart’ on it’s back is actually a spot of pollen which will have been deposited there when the bee visited a previous flower. Many flowers have their pollen on the end of stalks (stamens) which contact insect visitors at a point where they will be unable to remove the pollen that brushes onto them. This ensures that the next time the insect visits another plant of the same species, it will be fertilised."
May 31 from Lisa Tang: The waterfowl and other birds are doing really well with their babies this year. The picture here – http://usera.imagecave.com/feilik/coots.jpg shows a pair of coots on the canal with five tiny offspring, three of whom entered the water with much trepidation. Altogether we counted 5 pairs of coots on nests from here to Camley St Nature Reserve. One mallard has ten ducklings that survived, we have 5 ruddy ducks and two babies and lots of other baby goslings from the ubiquitous geese also. Our great-tits (2 babies survived)from the back patio nestbox fledged and visit often, the handmade nestbox has been a success for 3 years running. Lisa
Now that Oddiewatch has started on the Beeb and BBC London News is following up with London-wide stuff I got to wondering – what can be seen around King’s Cross? I’m seeing blackbirds and house sparrows feeding their fledglings on a regular basis, the mallard ducks are going crazy with a female taking refuge in the garden whilst being regularly ‘visited’ by gangs of males… but what else is going on out there. Oh and… apparently in Glasgow their street foxes like dog food! Please, please post your Springwatch King’s Cross news and photos here!
Local campaigning groups over many years have generated a real sense of community around the many redevelopments of Kings Cross. They have made developers think much harder about their proposals and ensure that they preserve and create far more heritage and community features than would ever have happened without a strong local lobby. The personal commitment in emotion, time and money by local people is huge and a massive sacrifice for the common good. 
Kings Cross Environment 
