Roehampton Garden Society

Category Archives: wildlifepage


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Fantastic Mr Fox?

Most of us are accustomed to seeing the odd fox in daylight hours – they are part of site wildlife, and seem amazingly unworried by humans.

Photo by Kate Pugh

This lovely photo, taken by Kate Pugh on site 2, shows how relaxed they can be! Certainly, most of us with a greenhouse have experienced the pleasure of a fox visitor enjoying the warmth and sunshine.

We do need to avoid crop damage and other problems that occur if too many foxes live on the sites. They are wild creatures that can give much pleasure. They do love digging under sheds, however!
There is excellent information and advice about living with foxes from the RSPCA – including how to find out if an earth (den) is occupied before you fill it in. Please do read it.


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The Peregrine Falcon

October 2022
This Tuesday at 12.45 hrs. I saw a peregrine falcon over the allotments. It was soaring beautifully on a thermal. Recognisable by pointed wing tips and what I can best describe as a straight tail.

A solitary large crow was desperately flapping trying to reach it, with the obvious intention of mobbing it. The peregrine obliged and dropped down to the same level of the crow, who courageously tried a clumsy pecking and foot up attack on it. The peregrine then demonstrated how it’s done, turning in a blink of an eye and, in milliseconds, knocking feathers off said brave crow. It (crow) wisely then dropped a couple of hundred feet, but still followed the peregrine, escorting it off the premises of Dover House Road air space. 

The peregrine may have been one of the pair that nested atop Charing Cross Hospital this last couple of years..

with thanks to Bill Young Site 3

Here’s a website dedicated to the peregrines nesting on Charing Cross Hospital