Christchurch Park, Ipswich - 11/10/2017

A family of BROWN RATS lives in burrows around the Wilderness Pond

 

Christchurch Park is one of the best urban parks around. Its a mix of parkland with some very old trees, woodland and ponds. I often visit this park when I'm in Ipswich town centre, its a very peaceful area, a place to escape the rush of modern life.

 

 GREEN WOODPECKER

 

The parkland attracts good numbers of birds associated with this habitat, including GREEN WOODPECKERS, STOCK DOVES, JACKDAWS and MISTLE THRUSHES.

 

 

 MANDARIN DUCKS

 

The Wilderness Pond  is a small tree lined pond, tucked away in an area of woodland. Its gross, the water's a kind of green colour, but is attractive to wildfowl. Aside from the gangs of CANADA GEESE and mongrel MALLARDS, are a small number of MANDARIN DUCKS. For the first time since I've been coming here, two chicks were successfully reared to adulthood. 

 

 

 

 DUNNOCK

 

Being an urban park, the birds are very tame, and allow you to approach very closely.
However, the most famous bird, perhaps the most famous owl in the world was absent. MABEL the TAWNY OWL was missing, but someone had carved this statue of her.