St Andrews Park

The monthly bird walk produced the following:

Mistle Thrush - song heard and nest found. I wonder if the singing bird (which seemed to be coming from the other side of the park) was additional to the pair seen near the nest?

Mistle Thrush nest and young

Blackbird - several birds
Robin - 1 or 2
Dunnock - a couple of singing birds
Wren - at least 2 birds, 1 showing well near the bowling green
Blue Tit - a few around
Great Tit - 1 or 2
Coal Tit - at least 1 heard singing
Goldcrest - at least 2 birds
Woodpigeon - plenty seen
Collared Dove - 1 or 2
Carrion Crow - several
Magpie - 2 or 3 birds
Blackcap - 1 singing near the bowling green and seen by some may have either been a migrant or an overwintering bird
House Sparrow - a group of birds seen well
Chaffinch - seen and heard singing
Goldfinch - still plenty around the park
Greenfinch - 3 or 4 birds

At the pond there were a few Frogs around, many dead - not sure why there there is such high mortality. An Eristalis intricarius (bee mimic) hoverfly was basking on the Marsh Marigold flowers.

Eristalis intricarius

My BTO Breeding Bird Survey around Montpelier, St Pauls and St Andrews produced the following totals: Sparrowhawk 1, Lesser Black-backed Gull 5, Herring Gull 4, Feral Pigeon 11, Woodpigeon 14, Collared Dove 5, Magpie 4, Carrion Crow 6, Blue Tit 11, Great Tit 2, Coal Tit 1, Blackcap 1, Wren 2, Starling 1, Blackbird 15, Mistle Thrush 1, Robin 4, Dunnock 4, House Sparrow 27, Chaffinch 1, Goldfinch 10.