Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, the park is thronging with birds. (Where did they all hide when it was cold? And how on earth did they survive?)
Most notable are a visiting flock of at least half a dozen redwing, feeding (as they did last year) in the clump of bushes behind the tennis clubhouse (aka Cy’s hut). They are difficult to pick out with the naked eye, and look very nondescript, but through binoculars you can see large orangey-red patches beneath their wings, and their very handsome eyebrows. They can also been seen flying around – at a characteristically brisk pace .
In the adjacent tree I counted at least 12 blue tits, and on the diagonal path leading to the playing field I was treated to an eye-height view of a pair of goldcrests feeding humming-bird style on a small conifer (plus yet more blue tits).
Other species noted: goldfinches, chaffinches, sparrows, dunnocks, robins, a great tit (heard) blackbirds (surprising number), magpies, crows, rooks, black-headed gulls.
Jannet