Londons Parks

[Ukwildlifeo]

Last week I went for a walk around the parks of central London St. James, Hyde and Regents park and kensington gardens. There is a surprising amount of wildlife and wildfowl in the collections.

First stop was St james to see the Pelicans



Then on entering Hyde Park I was confronted with this:



In the main lake and on the grass path next to it were 100s of ducks and geese including:

this tufted duck:


this greylag goose


this great crested grebe jvenile


and a possible parent


this greylag x domestic goose cross:


this juvenile Canada goose?


and this mallard and a couple of ducklings



After the passing under the bridge into kensington gardens the first thing we saw was this heron standing no more than 3m away. A marvellous site.


And down by the statue of peter pan was this sight


We then wandered over towards the round lake infront of kensington palace and saw this egyptian goose?


I then could see something moving through the water under a layer of algae and scum but couldnt work it out due to the glare of the sun. It turned out to be a red eared terrapin

Im not sure if its meant to be there or a released pet

By the fountains was this comical site

the goldfish kept swimming just outside its reach!

After the hell that is oxford street we went to Regents park after seeing the sight of all those herons on bill oddies top 10 birds

We wernt dissapointed as there were 8 herons on show as we entered. There was also this mallard and ducklings living dangerously. This is them swimming away from the heron after being much closer


I also saw somwthing Ive never seen before: a heron sitting down


And then the mallard and ducklings swam past in a living cliche


I then wandered of to the wildfowl collection areas where i saw this duck, the name of which I forget


These gadwalls?

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, there's a lot of wildlife. Green Park isn't great and St James' only has the pond but Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens have, in parts been managed for wildlifefor ten years or more. Regents Park has always been a bit resistant to encouraging wildlife but parts of it now are left fairly undisturbed. Not only is this good for wildlife but it saves the Corporation of London and HRH quite a bit of money (). Go a bit further out and you have some really important wildlife areas particularly Richmond Park and, in parts, Hampstead Heath. There are lots of other interesting parks and woods London Wildweb such as Lesnes Park Wood in the SE ....

[Ollie]

Excellent photos and a smashing day out by the look of it. It's amazing what species can be found in towns. Thank goodness for parks.
Roger

[Paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Excellent photos and a smashing day out by the look of it. It's amazing what species can be found in towns. Thank goodness for parks.
Roger

Indeed, and we don't hear enough about them; okay Sheffield and London get some publicity () but I'd like to know about all the other cities with green spaces. In many (most) cases, urban greenspace is far better for wildlife than the countryside.

Good to see the wild spaces section revived - http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...ld-places.html - but I hope people will include some urban areas. The least you can say about them is that you don't need a car to visit ...

[ChasCreek]

It is surprising what little oasis areas are to be found in inner city parks and reserves, even the smallest of parks hold surprises.

[jdurbo]

Oh WOW looks like you had a great day out!
Lovely pictures and love that last duck!

jen xxx

[ZOSO]

Hi,
Your reddish duck is a Ruddy Shelduck. Good pics

ZOSO

[paulchandler6]

I'd agree with ZOSO on the Ruddy Shelduck, some nice pics. Amazing what London has in its parks.

Paul

[aeshna5]

Lovely photos from places I know well- a lot of collection stuff, but an amazing number of truly wild stuff too.

Your labelled hybrid looks like a Canada possibly crossed with a Snow Goose + the bird below is another Canada hybrid, but not sure of other parent species.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Lovely photos from places I know well- a lot of collection stuff, but an amazing number of truly wild stuff too.

Your labelled hybrid looks like a Canada possibly crossed with a Snow Goose + the bird below is another Canada hybrid, but not sure of other parent species.

There were more greylags than anything else there so I assumed it was a snow x greylag hybrid. as for the on labelled "canada goose juvenile?" I wondered if it was a Canada x greylag hybrid.