These blogs are my non-cave photos and stories. The older ones are taken from my Multiply site, which closed in March 2013. I have a 2nd blog for the SE Asia cave items and a 3rd blog for non SE Asia caves.
I've been visiting various windmills in the Greater London area, the last one being Wandsworth Common. This time I went to Plumsted Common to see the remains of a mill. Plumsted Common is located east of Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The mill was a tower mill and was used for grinding corn, but stopped use sometime in the early part of the 1800s. All that remains today is the tower, which is part of the Old Mill pub. It seems to have been converted to accommodation.
The mill is located at the top of a hill so would have been in a good spot to catch the winds. As can be seen on the map, the common slopes down to the Slade Ravine, which is an ancient valley carved out in the Ice Age. At the bottom of the ravine are the Slade Ponds.
I recently saw the herd of elephants around the King's Road in Chelsea, London. I then went to see another herd that are situated at Spitalfields. Whereas the Chelsea elephants are made of an invasive plant, the Spitalfields are bronze. And they have a different significance. They represent real orphaned baby elephants that have beaten the odds to survive.
The elephants are located around Spitalfields Market. The market started in 1682 and lasted until the early 1990s. It is now a market with lots of individual arty/crafty type stalls, as well as many food and beverage outlets. Outside the market is used for outdoor artworks.
The Herd of Hope arrived in 2020.
The herd of 21 elephants were previously located at Marble Arch. They were there from Dec 2019. A mother elephant sat in the middle surrounded by 20 elephant calf sculptures. These were modeled from real orphaned baby elephants currently in the care of Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. This is a project in Kenya that protects elephants. Each sculpture includes the name of the orphaned calf they represent and their sad backstory.
Now the 21 elephants are scattered around Spitalfields market. I guess this separation is applicable considering the elephants are orphans, but it would be nice to see them in small groups.
This is the matriarch, she represents the mother and family each of the infant elephants lost when they became orphaned.
And some of the babies -
The elephant herd were created by Gillie and Marc. These artists have two other sculptures at the market. "Dogman and Rabbitgirl with coffee" (2017) represent unity and acceptance. "Gillie and Marc’s autobiographical characters, Rabbitwoman and Dogman, have a dream that open hearts and open minds can come together over a warm cup of coffee to promote diversity, love, and acceptance." -
Together Forever on Wheels, (2020). "Dogman and Rabbitwoman are back, but this time they’re on Vespas! The inspiration behind our latest addition was to try and encourage the public to step out of their front doors and fall in love with the world, people and animals in it." (Spitalfields public art)
Soon the Chelsea herd of elephants will be migrating to a new area, so I will have to go and find them in due course.
Went to Kelsey Park at Beckenham at the start of June and ended up taking lots of photos of birds. I particularly wanted to see the mandarin ducks, as a few days before I had been walking along my local river, the River Pool, when a pair of mandarins came out of the water and walked right up to me, presumably hoping for food. I had nothing for them and annoyingly I didn't have my camera with me. The next day there was no sign of them. Photo taken on phone -
In Kelsey the first one I saw was sitting by a tree. I took photos then got distracted feeding peanuts to squirrels. I soon found I had 5 mandarin ducks also after the peanuts, as well as a few pigeons.
I didn't notice any females. This appears to be a young male -
Mandarin ducks are native to the Far East but they are now widespread in the UK. See more on RSPB and Wildlife Trusts .
I then saw a cluster of Mallard ducks and thought they were fighting. But I soon spotted a female (hen) in the middle of scrum and realised the males were all attempting to mate with her. In the commotion, more males turned up. I Googled it later and found that gangs of young males are known to "gang rape" a female and this often leads to the female being seriously injured or even killed, or drowned if it happens in water. There is an interesting article about this happening regularly in Venice, posted in the Los Angeles Times.
I posted a video on youtube
The RSPB page says "Mallards start to pair up in October and November, and start to nest in March. The role of the male is almost over once the clutch is laid. He remains sexually potent for a while in case a replacement clutch is needed, but gradually loses interest and joins other males to moult. At this time groups of males with no obvious duties often mate forcibly with females that appear to be unattached. This anti-social phase is short-lived and ends once moulting is underway."
A mallard couple -
There were several families of geese with fluffy goslings. Both Canada and Egyptian geese are found here. These goslings camouflage well against the grass -
Some larger Egyptian youngsters -
A gaggle of geese. Seems they need some form of birth control! The Canada geese seem to be becoming a problem in the UK as there are so many of them. They are an introduced species and don't migrate so are resident all year. They are really common in parks and around lakes. The smaller Egyptian geese are also introduced but are generally just in SE England.
There are notices saying do not feed the geese, and do not feed any birds with white bread, but people ignore these and still give white bread as can be seen above.
I went to the park in the morning after a bank holiday weekend. Several rubbish bins had been emptied, presumably by foxes or crows.
The River Beck flows through Kelsey park, and then flows into the River Pool.
There are currently a herd of Indian elephants on the King's Road in Chelsea, London. So I went to have a look on 29 May 2021.
The project is known as CoExistence. Info from the Herd the news link : "Raising awareness for ‘CoExistence’, the new environmental art campaign from wildlife conservation charity Elephant Family, this extraordinary display of one of the world’s most precious mammals aims to raise funds for conservation projects that enable people and wildlife to live peacefully alongside each other.
From babies and adolescents all the way through to full-grown male tuskers, there is a beautiful story behind these intricate sculptures, made using Lantana camara, a natural plant material that was introduced to Asia where it became a notorious weed; toxic to grazing animals and outcompeting native species leading to a reduction in biodiversity. Over five years, a great amount of skill has gone into their creation, each sculpture inspired by a real, wild elephant that lives alongside their creators.
These masters of their craft are from indigenous communities in India who coexist with these elephants. With great understanding of the forest they share, they show these animals respect and know what to plant, where to walk and how to live within natures laws and rhythms. To find out more about the makers, visit their website here."
The 50 handcrafted life-size elephants are in Chelsea from 17 May to 6 June. A map of the Chelsea migration -
I started with the Royal Avenue herd, where there are 5 elephants -
The biggest herd is just up the King's Road, at Duke of York Square, aka Cadogan Estate.
