Читать книгу Bill Oddie’s How to Watch Wildlife - Stephen Moss - Страница 27

If you have an hour or two to spare in the afternoon, or fancy a walk before breakfast, you could do a whole lot worse than pay a visit to your local park. Even in the heart of the city you may be surprised at what you might find.

The great thing about wildlife in parks is that it is used to people. Joggers, dog walkers, courting couples, or children feeding the ducks are all part of the scenery: so after a while the wild creatures just get used to the noise and disturbance. That means that you can often get closer to some of our shyer species than you might think.

Good examples of this are two species that hide acorns in autumn to see them through the cold weather: the jay and the grey squirrel. Jays are usually very shy birds, but though still wary, you will find that they often allow a close approach in a park; while squirrels are far bolder than they are in their natural woodland habitat. Foxes, too, may be out and about, especially at dawn and dusk, which are the best times to visit a park anyway.

Parks often play host to flocks of wintering birds, attracted by plenty of food on offer. Tits, finches and sparrows are the most common species, though house sparrows have sadly declined in many of our cities in the past few years, vanishing completely from some urban areas. There are more exotic species too: winter thrushes such as fieldfare and redwing often gather on berry bushes to feed; while great spotted woodpeckers are much easier to see at this time of year when there are no leaves to spoil the view. Look out for green woodpeckers on the ground, especially early in the day.

But the most impressive sight in your local park is probably the one that you are most likely to ignore: the ducks on the pond. Among the usual mallards and introduced, exotic varieties, you may be surprised to learn that there will be several birds that have come all the way from Siberia to winter in Britain. Look out for the tufted duck, pochard and shoveler, all of which are relatively scarce breeders here but winter in huge numbers.