Trip reports

Bushy Park

Sunday, 3 January 2010

Our first outdoor meeting of the New Year is a gentle stroll through the deer park and ornamental woodland gardens at Bushy Park. A bright sun brought out the crowds even though the temperature remained low with thin ice covering the majority of the lakes. Our party was one of the largest I have seen for some time. We met at the Diana Fountain car park, where we saw the first of the birds on offer. Egyptian geese, mute swan and canada geese were all around the car park and the duck pond. Mallard, tufted duck and red-crested pochard were also waiting to be fed with a large flock of black-headed gulls and numerous coots. Away from the water we found green woodpecker, jackdaw and of course the ever present ring-necked parakeets. A grey heron was stalking in the channel that flowed along the path we followed towards the gardens. A mistle thrush was found near the tall trees that contain a good crop of mistletoe. We entered the gardens, where we found blue, long tailed, great and coal tits as well as nuthatch, pied wagtail, robin and wren. Mandarin ducks and moorhens were on the water under the trees and jays were quite active. The occasional great spotted woodpecker was found as we continued towards the wild side of the park. Here we returned to a spot where we found little owls two years ago and sure enough a single bird was enjoying the sunshine. Our route then took us back to the cars with only passing redwings being added to our list.