Christchurch Park - 20/3/2020

 

 

With the Covid-19 virus hitting the shores of the UK, many areas of the countryside we have taken for granted for have now became closed off to visitors, to stop  the spread. I was able to get to  Christchurch Park with my camera a day before it was officially closed to the public to record what is a pivotal time in the wildlife calendar. Spring is here, perhaps the most important season for wildlife and will carry on regardless to our woes.

 

 This female MALLARD had an extraordinary 13 ducklings

 

Whatever shortcomings Ipswich has a town it has some excellent urban parks, of which Christchurch is probably the best. Rising up from the town centre into northern Ipswich, Christchurch Park is a vital green lung for the town, providing greenery and nature to many people within a built up area.
I don't know how many times I have gone to the town centre, only to spend my time in this park. I know it like the back of my hand, and it repays me on every visit.

Little MALLARD ducklings

 



Its a familiarity with people that has given the birds a tolerance to any disturbance. As a result the birds are approachable and therefore are much easier to photograph than their counterparts in more rural locations.

Here's trouble: LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS

 



The main feature of the park are the veteran trees, with some quite impressive old specimens. These stately specimens stand as sentinels in the park, guardians of the past and the future, for a time beyond our imagining.
Their trunks writhe as if possessed with demons underneath, they have a bloated main trunk with stubby branches reaching up to the sky, making them so impressive to contemplate.

One of the many impressive trees in the park.

 

These old trees have many nooks and crannies that provide much nesting and feeding habitat to the birds of parkland, such as MISTLE THRUSHES, STOCK DOVES, GREAT SPOTTED & GREEN WOODPECKERS, and MABEL the most famous owl in the country, although she has been missing for a couple of months.

SNAKES HEAD FRITILLERY

Apart from the river Orwell, Christchurch Park is the best site in the town for birds. As well as the veteran trees and the areas of parkland, there is an arboretum, and of course, the Wilderness Pond.

MISTLE THRUSH with nesting material

 



A bit of a misnomer, the Wilderness Pond is not in the least bit wild, rather a place where young families congregate to feed the many mongrelly MALLARDS present. Rubbing shoulders with these mallards are a horde of CANADA GEESE and what is the largest number of MANADRIN DUCKS in the county. These birds are one of the most beautiful birds in this country, but I'm fed up of photographing them, so look at an older blog for pictures.

This is the most common thrush in the park, loving the scattered trees and grassy turf

 



At the moment many of the CANADA GEESE are vying for the rights to the best nesting spots, so there is a lot of argy bargee amongst them, with birds getting very aggressive. Quite a large number nest on the various islands in the pond with as many as seven pairs present here. Three pairs of MANDARINS are present, being a tree nesting bird, nest boxes have been provided for them.
Pairs of COOT and LITTLE GREBE were present so its assumed they may nest this year. COOTS nested for the first time in the park's history last year, raising two broods. I have no idea about the LITTLE GREBES, I have never seen them nest here before, in fact they are quite rare birds here, so it would be great if they raised a family.

BLUE TIT

 



On the 17 March I made an earlier visit to the park, and there was a female MALLARD accompanied by an amazing 13 ducklings. Already used to humans the little birds came right up to me without a single care of my presence, I could have reached out and picked one up.
Unfortunately the pair of LESSER BLCK BACKED GULLS have returned. They nest every year on top of the large buildings bordering the park. From here they feast on all the young ducklings that are born on the pond, even venturing to take the larger goslings. Extremely clever, they have no qualms about eating up an entire generation of birds on the pond.

 STOCK DOVE come down to feed at the Wilderness Pond on spilt grain given to the ducks

 

Being such a warm Spring, lots of flowers have emerged. Yellow LESSER CELENDINE and PRIMROSE around the wooded areas, along with loads of DAFFS. In the fen area, a nice marshy grassy place just north of the Wilderness Pond, SNAKES HEAD FRITILLERIES have emerged. An extremely rare flower, it grows at around ten sites in the country, including a few in Suffolk, these specimens have probably been planted or seeded.

 CARRION CROW

 

As the country comes under more and more serious lockdown, I can now only sit by my laptop dreaming about the many gems there are out there in our countryside and everything that's going on without me. Because although its a city park, surrounded on all sides by housing development, it still is a place rich for birds, a slice of countryside accidently dropped in amongst the concrete.
Who knows what will be the cost of the virus, what in our society has changed, but wildlife will keep on going, living through the changing seasons as they have done in the past and will do in the future. Take comfort in that.