1st March and birdsong is picking up in Richmond Park!
So, Discoverers put their wellies on for our first Sunday of the Month drizzly Nature Walk and off we went from Pen Ponds kiosk, listening for sounds of wildlife. We were not disappointed!
Every time we heard a bird singing, we identified it, looked with our binoculars and inserted a coloured drawing pin in our map to pinpoint where we had heard that song. we built up our key as we went along.
This is how our map looked at the end of our walk:
We looked and talked about our findings at the end and the yellow pins confirmed what we knew already: the bird we heard the most all along our walk was the ring-necked parakeet! We also noticed that there were a lot of birds near and on Upper Pen Pond. Discoverers were quick at figuring out that the presence of water, food in the pond and a place to be on the island might explain it.
Our Sound Map was keenly studied and our Skylarks board was also on the walk with us, kindly carried all the way by Eloise. It was a good reminder of things to come in the Park. We can’t wait to hear the skylarks again soon.
We were also very fortunate to spot a peregrine falcon near Pen Pond and Tristan patiently adapted his father’s telephone to their telescope so we could all have a good look, thank you Tristan!
A great sight!
There was also plenty of mud for wellies-wearer to have fun in and Peter had kindly brought his tin of chocolate eggs, again!
We do love spring and all bird-related activities, and chocolate!