Bushy Park Nature Diary - January

As this is the first entry on my blog, I thought I’d kick it off by introducing you to my “Patch.” If you’re not familiar with the term it’s usually used by birders to describe the local area that they frequent on a regular basis and are most familiar with. In many ways I have a couple of patches, but if I had to choose one it would have to be Bushy Park.

Looking towards the National Physical Laboratory - there's often a flock of black-headed gulls on here

Bushy is one of the Royal Parks, situated in Zone 6 in the Borough of Richmond on Thames, and it is a very special place indeed. I'm lucky enough to live a quick five minute walk from one of the gates but it’s easily accessible from Teddington, Kingston and Hampton. It's the second biggest Royal Park at 445 hectares, and has a mix of habitats ranging from large stands of open grassland to dense scrubby woodlands. Most of the park is a designated SSSI because of the invertebrates lurking in the grasslands. Quite large areas are covered in ant-hills which is always slightly alarming when you see children jumping around on top of them - the ants that make them bite!

With it being January, most of these invertebrates aren’t around now, save the odd bee confused by how mild it’s been lately. At the moment the park feels very barren – most of the trees are denuded, the grass is very short and there is a lot of mud. With the rain we’ve had this winter the ground is saturated and there are various paths that are impassable without wellies. Fortunately, being a Royal Park, there are also plenty of surfaced paths to explore without getting your feet muddy.

January really is the season for bird watching and not much else. I’ve already seen flocks of redwing perching on the skeletal branches of blackthorn bushes out in the middle of the park and the deer are usually followed by large flocks of starling around now. The park keepers have been leaving out browse for them to supplement what they can find growing in the park which makes it quite easy to predict where to find them. All that grass is also good for small rodents so the park supports a healthy kestrel population and I’ve noticed quite a few of these perching in the taller oaks.

Kestrels are easy to spot right now

Probably my favourite walk in the park, although it is quite muddy now, is along the Longford River in the Woodland Gardens. Dogs and bikes aren’t allowed in the plantations, so its also quite a peaceful place and not a lot of people know about it so it’s a wonderful place to spot woodland birds. Robins and blue and great tits are a certainty, but I often find myself surrounded by long-tailed tits hopping in and out of the trees and bushes. They flit so fast it can be hard to see them properly, but their tails give them away. Whenever I see tit flocks I always look carefully because they often have a guest star amongst them; goldcrests in particular like the safety of the group and I’ve already spotted the little darting shape of our smallest bird in amongst the larger tits.

Long-tailed tit

Goldcrest - cute faces, and they really don't stay still for long!

Robin - common feature just about everywhere

The woodlands are also a great place to go to spot treecreepers and nuthatches, often on the same tree, and neither of which are particularly common in London. The little blue nuthatch, with its stream-lined body, crawls up the trunk while the brown treecreeper, its hooked beak a key feature, scuttles down it (And both usually go behind it if you’re trying to take a picture). Sadly this month I’ve been unable to spot kingfishers along here but it’s always worth keeping an eye out for the characteristic flash of blue or to listen for their high-pitched call.

Nuthatch en-route to behind the branch

I’m looking forward to the Spring because, frankly, I hate the dark and cold, but there’s still plenty to appreciate in this dead winter season, even in an urban park.