Not as you might think, some Roman bath house excavation but Turdus migratorious, known to his friends as the American Robin; and the star of today's Londonist animal post. Turdus's landing is a big deal, since this is the first time one of these little critters has been spotted in London, and the RSPB have despatched their man to the Denman Road are of Peckham to confirm.
The sighting has drawn a number of bird watchers to Peckham; probably the first time any of them have been ornithologists though.
They are looking into different gardens and some have their binoculars trained on the chimney of a house.
Are we sure this isn't yet another police stakeout cover story?
The reason for such excitement is that Migratorious's migration patterns generally see the blackbird sized fellow head from Canada to Gautemala. That makes us a long way off the flight path. No one knows what it's doing here. Or how it got here. Or why it chose Peckham. All we know is that there have been no claims for asylum just yet. Still whatever it's plans, it's brought some sunshine into the life of local resident Ian Skelton:
It's quite tame, but not as friendly as a robin, I'll miss it when it goes.
