Bushy Park Nature Diary - April

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Even having lived next to it for nearly nine years, this month I think I’ve really come to know and to appreciate the park. Only being allowed one daily exercise walk has made the time spent in there a little island of sanity in a world gone mad. And the park keeps giving back in terms of wildlife. April is the time of year when the trees start coming to life, the flowers begin to grow and a lot of the wildlife that’s been dormant since the previous summer begins to reappear.

Slowly but surely the trees are coming into leaf. In early April they’re still sparsely covered in fresh, yellow-green shoots but by the end of the month most of these will be fully unfurled and drinking up the sunlight. Probably my favourite are the oaks, with their delicate flowers hanging down pendulously amongst the sprays of leaves. This is the tree that I have the most to do with because I volunteer for the park as an Oak Processionary Moth surveyor; I’ll talk more about that in a future entry because for the moment the caterpillars aren’t in evidence, although they usually hatch around the start of the month. The oak trees are home to more than just invasive, toxic caterpillars though – the larger trees tend to be riddled with woodpecker nest holes, and on occasion I’ve been lucky enough to spot nesting greater-spotted woodpeckers and little owls, although the parakeets are known to have started squatting in a number of these holes.

Oak Processionary Moths (From last year)


The nightlife in the park has really taken off. This is when we are doing the majority of our visits at the moment and the most noticeable thing as it starts to get dark is the sheer number of bats whizzing around. They’re particularly numerous over the different water bodies and there’s a particular point where a bridge crosses the Longford River which yields spectacular flurries of the winged mammals every evening. As the midges start to emerge the waking bats are feasting on them and filling up their reserves ready for the breeding season. Take a bat detector and you start to get an idea of what species are on the wing – mostly we’ve been finding common pipistrelles but we’ve also found the larger noctule bats flitting through the trees, Daubentons by the Longford River and even the odd brown long-eared bat.

Canal Plantation early evening - another bat hotspot!


April 26th was my wedding anniversary, so for a bit of a change of pace I dragged my wife out of bed at 5.30 in the morning to go out into the park for a dawn chorus walk. I’ve been meaning to do this for years, and it’s a bit worrying that it’s taken a pandemic to get me out of bed this early but I’m glad we managed it. Although the days have been warm this month, the mornings have still been cold enough for a dusting of frost and regular mists. The park looks absolutely wonderful at this time, and with the air alive with bird song it was the perfect start to a wedding anniversary. We mainly stuck to areas with plenty of trees and there were large numbers of singing starlings, sparrows, great tits, robins and blackbirds when we entered the park. As we headed towards the perimeter of the Woodland Gardens they were soon joined by the mellifluous call of the blackcaps and the chiffing and chaffing of the chiffchaffs. By the time we reached the bridge the rhythmic drumming of woodpeckers was also filling the air.



It was an intoxicating start to the morning and we felt revitalised by the time we got back to the flat. I have to admit that we then went to bed for the next two hours but we’re hoping to make the early morning walk a regular thing! May starts on Friday and soon I’ll be taking the macro lens out to look for insects too. And I’ve just received confirmation that Oak Processionary Moth surveying will be happening this year – just to mix up the public health issues a bit!

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