Parkland Wildlife

I've had a bit of a soft spot for parkland wildlife for a while now. Having visited Wollaton Park as one of my local patches for about a year, I became familiar with what to expect from urban parks in terms of birds, and what habitats attract what. The wildlife one sees at these places is often quite interesting. There are common birds which you would expect from the wider countryside, although lots of birds which would normally be common elsewhere can be quite elusive or altogether absent.

Woodland birds are well represented, as there are often lots of mature native trees and often plantations of woodland which can be a few hundred years old. I see more Nuthatch and Woodpeckers in parks than anywhere else! Waterbirds are well represented as there is usually a lake at these parks, although the species can sometimes be limited due to the fact most lakes are open, shallow and lack bankside vegetation or cover. There is often open pasture too, dominated by coarse grasses which are often mowed on a less frequent basis than other amenity grassland. On these pastures, species representative of this habitat can also be easily spotted, Mistle Thrush and Green Woodpecker feed for invertebrates and corvids dominate. However due to their location, parks don't generally accommodate species such as skylarks and pipits which you may expect to see in similar environments in the countryside. Added to this is the occasional raptor and a whole swathe of commoner garden birds, and you pretty much have your make up of species for parkland.

In any season i really enjoy visiting a park, as you can get round them in a couple of hours and usually rack up a decent species list, and aside from the birds, there is always something to look at. At Wollaton there is the resident red and fallow deers, and the gardens and woodlands are simply enjoyable to walk through. Fungi are well represented too.

Why am I extolling the virtues of parks then? Have I been given a job at Notts City Council? No unfortunately not. I just happened to spend a fair bit of time at Bullwell Hall Park last week while doing some brushcutter training, and got a taste for it, so ended the week on a trip to Wollaton. At both parks I found some great birds and really enjoyed what they had to offer.

I was first at Bullwell park on tuesday, but didn't have much time to look for much. However i did note the amount of singing Nuthatch and my first singing Chaffinch of the year from the carpark. Driving around the park indicated to me that it was a very nice place, with lots of mature trees and open grassland. Where we did our training was between a football field and a area of rough grassland/meadow. The weather was terrible, but there were plenty of birds to be seen, including a Kestrel that flew into a tree to escape the weather, and lots of small birds which had been attracted to some seed that had been thrown down for them.

When I returned for my assessment on thursday I was in for a wait, as I was the last to be assessed. I decided to brave the cold and have a wander. I started off walking through the woods behind the gold club. A carving of an owl has been done on a fallen tree here and stands proudly amongst the trees, very impressive. The woods were alive with birds, with great tits and blue tits busily feeding amongst the trees and on the woodland floor. Nuthatches were everywhere too, piping up with their merry calls and some were seen feeding, tapping away against branches. A number of Goldcrest could also be heard and one was seen at close range, hovering in typical goldcrest fashion as it gleaned food from the branches of a yew.