SS15 wildlife watching: Visit to Gloucester Park

Thursday, 12 November 2020

Visit to Gloucester Park – 12th November 2020

Date: 12th November 2020

Time: from 10:00 a.m.

Weather: dry, sunny, moderate wind, 10°C to 12°C

My last visit to Gloucester Park was on 21st May 2020 and I had an appalling experience compared to my numerous visits in April 2020 and earlier in May 2020 …. see here and here.

However, this morning I decided to give it, or at least the other people visiting it, another opportunity.

Given that I had not visited Gloucester Park for almost 6 months, the contrast with my spring visits was very noticeable in terms of the beautiful autumn colours and the less abundant wildlife. Fortunately, the excessive littering and the other problems of anti-social behaviour were also far less evident.

The highlight of my visit was a Kingfisher, my first record for the site bringing my site total for bird species to 41. It was only a momentary sighting by the bridge at the far eastern end of the main lake. I first heard its distinctive shrill, whistling call before I saw a flash of electric blue as the bird flew rapidly past me.

In addition, to the Kingfisher, other birds on or around the lakes include a Grey Heron, 3 Cormorants, a pair of Mute Swans, c.50 Mallard plus small numbers of Moorhens, Coots and Canada Geese. Generally, however, the numbers of ducks and geese were far less than in the spring.

Other notable bird sightings included a Green Woodpecker feeding on the ground on the south side of the main lake and a small flock of c.20 House Sparrows in a bush between the main lake and the smaller lake further to the east.

With regard to mammals, I saw a single Brown Rat scurrying along the edge of the main lake and 4 Grey Squirrels all along the wooded edge of the path between the main lake and the smaller lake.

On a totally unrelated note and absolutely nothing to do with wildlife, I prepared this blog post whilst listening to the new album from Bruce Springsteen. Bruce is, by a long way, my favourite male singer-songwriter. I have all of his albums since the debut "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ" released in 1973 and I have seen him live 6 times: The River tour at the Brighton Centre, Brighton in May 1981, the Born in the USA tour at Wembley Stadium, London in July 1985, The Rising tour at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, London in May 2003, Magic tour at Old Trafford, Manchester in May 2008, the Wrecking Ball tour at Hampden Park, Glasgow in June 2016 and The River tour (2016) at Wembley Stadium, London in June 2016. The new album "Letter to you" is simply brilliant from start to finish and the best Bruce Springsteen album for many years. I just need the Covid-19 pandemic to end to allow Bruce to take it out on the road and perform to fans around the world.