Monday, April 22, 2013

Guest blog: Newsham Park is bursting with wild life

Newsham Park, Liverpool is almost bursting with wildlife, from mini-beasts, to wild fowl, mammals.
 

We have a few firsts, the first Redwings to be photographed in Liverpool, a nesting pair of Sparrow Hawks and two nesting pairs of Kestrels.

The list of wild fowl is amazing; We have, eight Coots, ten Moorhens, up to fifteen Mallards, four hybrid drakes, twenty five Canada Geese, four common Geese and three Muscovy Ducks.



At one time we had eleven Cormorants, but two were killed recently (most probably by humans) which was upsetting as this was a pair getting ready to nest. The other nine were driven off the lakes through the actions of some park visitors.


We haven't had any resident Swans for a few years now, they always hatched six cygnets every year but for some reason these got killed several years running. The swans must have got fed up with this and left for good, the last cygnet to hatch in Newsham Park left two years ago. But it is not all bad news. 

We do have a  diverse range of birdlife that can be found in the park.

All the different Finches, Nuthatches, Tree Creepers, Pied Wagtails, Song Thrushes, Mistle Thrush, Robins, Blue Jays, Magpies, Crows, two pairs of Great Spotted Woodpeckers. We also have migrating birds visiting the park, the Swifts have just arrived from Africa and will stay with us for several months before heading back.


We also have several different species of butterflies, bees, wasps and ladybirds.





We have two families of Foxes, a possible third family of foxes, to be confirmed and obviously our Squirrels




We also have a diverse range of wild flowers, trees, fungus.

The diversity of wildlife and plant life in the park is such that Merseyside Biobank take a active interest in my photography work.






 



I have set up a Facebook Book Group called Wild Life of Newsham Park if you want to see more.

Richard Milligan, 
Wildlife Photographer
Friends of Newsham Park

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