Visit to Gloucester Park – 21st May 2020

Date: 21st May 2020

Time: from 6:45 a.m.

Weather: dry, cloudy/hazy sunshine, light wind, 15°C to 19°C

This was my first visit to Gloucester Park since 10th May 2020.

I set out with some trepidation given the numerous posts on the Gloucester Park Community Group page on Facebook which have described what has occurred since the loosening of the lockdown restrictions.

My visit started very well as I again heard and then saw a male Lesser Whitethroat in the bushes immediately on exiting the underpass at the north west entrance to Gloucester Park. This was followed by seeing a Great Spotted Woodpecker and hearing a calling Green Woodpecker as I crossed the field towards the main lake.

However, what I then encountered was appalling and made me feel angry and depressed in equal measure.

The main lake resembled a camp site with much of the edge fringed by tents. Several of the tents were pitched almost on top of one another, making a complete mockery of the continuing requirements for social distancing. These tents evidently belonged to a large number of fishermen, many of whom had large crates or boxes of beer in addition to their fishing equipment and some had mini-grills or barbeques fired up cooking food. One even had loud music playing. All this was happening before 7 a.m. so I have no idea what it must be like later in the day when even more people descend on the park.

Then there was the litter. Most of the litter bins were full to overflowing. This was bad enough but there were accumulations of litter including alcohol bottles and cans, plastic items and much else scattered at various places along the route around the lake. Apart from being unsightly and potentially dangerous, it is also completely unnecessary and avoidable if people showed some respect for the environment.

All this is having an obvious impact on the wildlife, especially the birds that use the lake and lake edge to feed and nest. This morning there were hardly any birds on the lake other than in some of the quieter corners at each end.

The area between the main lake and the small lake was a little quieter albeit there did appear to be more joggers and dog walkers than normal. However, the small lake also had a small number of fishermen surrounding it.

During my visit, I did briefly see 2 Common Terns flying around the main lake and I heard 2 singing Blackcaps and 1 singing Chiffchaff. In addition, I heard another calling Green Woodpecker and another calling Great Spotted Woodpecker. 

Finally I saw 3 Grey Squirrels.

I spent less than an hour at Gloucester Park compared with my usual 2 to 3 hours and I took no photos. I was actually glad to leave and returned home thoroughly depressed with the whole experience. It remains to be seen whether I will visit again but, if I do, I can not imagine it will be any different.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Lesser Whitethroat
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Robin
Wren
Dunnock
Starling
House Sparrow
Goldfinch
Pied Wagtail
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Woodpigeon
Jay
Carrion Crow
Magpie
Canada Goose
Greylag Goose
Mallard
Coot
Moorhen
Common Tern
Black-headed Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull

Grey Squirrel

Site totals to date:

Birds = 40

Mammals = 2

Butterflies = 1

Dragonflies and damselflies = 0

Reptiles = 0

Amphibians = 0

💚🦆 🦉 🌼 🌳💚

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature