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SJG Winter Quiz

Stepping outside can really shift things.

There’s a growing body of evidence about the positive impact nature has on our health.  Yet, let’s face it, pausing during a busy week and getting children outside and off screens at weekends when it is raining is HARD.

This Winter Garden Quiz is for anyone living in, working in, or visiting EC1 — something to give people a reason to step outside and really look.

Here is a link to the quiz

Here is a link to the answer sheet:

We hope you enjoy it…

(Huge thanks to one of our brilliant volunteer photographers whose images capture the garden beautifully. The adaptations and reformatted content for the quiz which doesn’t quite do them justice).

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Susanna's biodiversity update

On 25 January, it was the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Six of us met in St John’s Gardens, holding coffee mugs and bird checklists and binoculars. The park was wet after overnight rain, and it was still drizzling at 8:30am when we began, but dried up whilst we were there. It was Sunday morning, there was pretty much no one in the park apart from us.

 

The aim of the Big Garden Birdwatch, which happens once a year in January, is to watch birds in your local patch for one hour, and record all the birds that land. Across the country, over half a million people send in their observations, giving a unique snapshot of how birds are doing across the UK. 

Last year in St John’s Garden, we got nine species. So the question was how would things be today?

The first thing we saw when walking into the park was a soggy Feral Pigeon squatting alone on the ground by the benches, waiting for the rain to stop. Four more pigeons flew in and strolled around. Not terribly exciting! But we were off the mark! One species, five birds. 

A male Blackbird then flew into one of the top cherry trees, and roosted quietly there. Good! Two species. A Woodpigeon then arrived in the high branches of one of the plane trees, and cooed as if in deepest Gloucestershire - well, that is what it sounds like to me! I love the sound, which makes me think of childhood holidays in the Cotswolds. Anyway, that brought us to three. Suddenly in the bare twigs of the callery pear tree, two Blue Tits appeared, near the nest box... So we watched carefully… and one of the Blue Tits popped inside the box! Checking out a possible nesting place! How lovely to see signs of spring! And that was species four. Immediately after that, a Great Tit appeared in the same tree, bringing us to five. Next, two Magpies arrived and strutted around near the benches at the top of the park, squawking to each other. They flew to the old nest in the top of the callery pear, and busily had a look at it, then reappeared a little later at the old nest in one of the bottom cherry trees. One of the Magpies was now carrying a twig in its beak, and it worked away, weaving the twig into the nest. Exciting! Magpies have not actually nested in the park as long as we have been recording. They build huge nests with domed roofs. The old nests we have in the park are relatively small. I googled Magpie stick-carrying later, and found out that when preparing for nesting, Magpies sometimes carry sticks “for practice” or for making a stash of good building material. Nice! Makes sense! And the Magpies brought us to six species. A pair of Crows flew into the high branches of one of the plane trees, cawing, bringing us to seven. 

By now it was well past nine o'clock, and our coffee cups were empty, and we didn't have much time left of our one-hour survey. We'd heard the Robins singing, but they were surprisingly shy that morning, and no one had seen one yet. Then Seb and Violet spotted a Robin, and that made eight. Three Ring-necked Parakeets then appeared, which Violet watched through binoculars: two of the bright green birds clung vertically to a wall opposite the park, and peered into round hidey holes there, as if they were watching a peep show. We wondered what they were doing. The holes seemed too small for nesting. Anyway, that made nine species, which equalled our total last year. And then we suddenly heard a Wren, singing gorgeously and really loudly, somewhere in the Shrubbery area. It’s quite tricky to see birds in there even now, because there are quite a lot of leaves on those bushes, and Wrens are small! We could not find it, until finally Seb managed to spot it in the nick of time, and even take a photo, just before the hour was up. So we got ten species this year, and 20 individual birds. Many thanks to everyone who took part, and made it a great morning! 

So what do our results this year show? Well, over the three years that we've taken part in this RSPB survey, the number of species we have seen has been stable, with 9 or 10 each year. So that is basically good. And how do we compare to everyone else’s patch? Well, we got more than the average number of Feral pigeons, unsurprisingly for central London (we got 5 vs average 1), and we also got more Ring-necked Parakeets than average (3 vs 0). The top birds nationally were House Sparrows, which in parts of London - including our patch - have disappeared completely. House Sparrows are down 64% nationally since the survey began in 1979, which is shocking, and so sad, one of many species struggling because of viruses, parasites, climate change, lack of food, habitat loss and pollution. The things we are doing in St John’s Garden and across the Clerkenwell Pollinator Pathway will hopefully make a difference. Every small bit helps. We are growing plants with more berries and seeds to provide “natural” bird food, and we’re improving the soil so there will be more worms, important for the Blackbirds, Robins and Wrens, and great too for Starlings and Mistle and Song Thrushes, which we don’t get, or very rarely, and it would be brilliant to see them return. The pond in St John’s Garden means there is water all year round so birds can drink and bathe, as well as more insects to eat. The dead hedges and leaf piles are home to a rich mix of all sorts of grubs and insects and spiders and snails, which are not only good in their own right, but also a larder of nutritious food for hungry birds. The nest boxes provide homes for raising young, and in time (quite a long time) the thicker hawthorn and holly hedging will also provide the natural nesting habitat that birds such as House Sparrows like. Over the long term, we hope we can keep the bird population stable, and perhaps encourage "new" bird species, such as House Sparrows, to move in… And meanwhile, in the short term, this spring - just around the corner now! - we hope there will be lots of baby birds and proud parents in St John’s Garden! That would be a joy to behold. 

We monitor birdlife in St John’s Garden every week, and post what we see on the St John's Garden eBird Hotspot. Check out what’s been seen!

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February News from the Garden

What's Growing? 

So many bulbs are peeping through this month and if you haven't done so already, check out Hilary's monthly photo montage of  what's blooming in SJG on Instagram @stjohnsgarden.ec1 - it's quite incredible to see the range of shrubs and plants in flower during winter months :). We're still holding our nerve and NOT clambering around the beds removing leaves as we know how important leaves are as a habitat for pupating beetles, butterfly chrysalises and overwintering bumble bees - so much unseen life developing, growing and resting undisturbed in the leaf piles of SJG. 

What's Next?

The SJG Spring Calendar is now available and we are in for a blooming treat with lots of growing activities in the garden and across the neighbourhood as part of the Clerkenwell Pollinator Path in 2026. Move over Winter Olympics, our very own Growing Champion Jess is leading the charge on community cuttings in Clerkenwell and is compiling a list of all the babies we're growing and where they're going to be planted out. If you'd like to donate your own cuttings or accept gifts of lovingly-grown community cuttings when they're ready to be planted out, please contact us on stjohnsgarden.ec1@gmail.com and Jess will be in touch.

There's also a community planting session at the new Hicks Hall Gardens on St John's Street in the works. The date is still TBD, potentially Saturday 28th February, but this date will be confirmed nearer the time. If you want to stay in the loop with Clerkenwell Pollinator Path progress and happenings over the coming months, you can join a WhatsApp Group here and help us bring nature back into our neighbourhood!

The Annual AGM of the Friends of St John's Garden is being held on a Saturday this year, March 21st 2pm-3.30pm at the Museum Learning Centre in St John's Square (under the archway leading to the cloister garden, next to where chess club takes place on Saturdays). Everyone is welcome to come along - we'll be reporting on 2025 activities and sharing plans for the year ahead! We'll also be electing new members to the committee at the AGM so if you're curious to know more about what the role involves drop us a line at stjohnsgarden.ec1@gmail.com and let's chat! 

Calling bookworms and wild swans! The first meet-up of the Britton Street Book Club is April 9th at 6pm and the chosen book is Fly Wild Swans, the long-awaited sequel to Wild Swans. If you'd like to be added to the Book Club Whatsapp group, please email stjohnsgarden.ec1@gmail.com and Arvinda will be in touch :)

Sarah, Susanna, Analisa, Ian and Liz

(Friends of St John’s Garden Committee)

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