August Bird Walk
We were extremely privileged and delighted to welcome back Julia Holland - a familiar and knowledgeable face to lead our August Bank Holiday Bird Walk. It appeared the birds were also away for a Bank Holiday weekend, with fewer sightings this month. We inevitably saw the various pigeons, crows and jackdaws, plus magpies were very evident, as well as some jays high up amongst the trees within the flower garden. A young Brodie – a very keen and knowledgeable bird enthusiast, spotted Mrs Mallard with five of her young out on the grassland. We walked round to the further end of the lake, and found the mallard family had joined a pair of moorhen, plus a juvenile robin within the lakeside shrubs. A single Egyptian goose was also noted sat by itself on the grass. Other smaller varieties proved harder to actually see as we meandered through the woodland to look out into the deer park, but we did manage to see quite a few robins, wren, dunnock, great and blue tits. Looking into the deer park, we were privileged to have all the Fallow Does and Fawns resting just inside the wire fence and it took us a while before we spotted the Buck’s antlers sat adjacent to a tree, sitting by himself in amongst the long grass and nettles. There were plenty of squawking ring-necked parakeets flying all round us, a great spotted woodpecker was also ‘spotted’ (excuse the pun!) as it flew into a tree where a pair of stock doves were perched.
With ground maintenance staff present in the deer park, we were privileged to watch both the Red and the Fallow herds all move quickly around the park, thereby disturbing quite a few crows and jackdaws who had been foraging on the ground. We returned to the flower garden to meander through the stunning flower beds, hoping to spot goldcrests high up in the evergreen coniferous canopies, and were rewarded with some blue and great tits, plus Mr & Mrs Blackbird, more robins and a wren.
Walking across to the rose garden, failed to provide us with any other species and at the end of a very pleasant two hour ramble, we called it a day. Hopefully our next Bird Walk with Julia on 26th September might introduce us to some autumnal visitors.