Mistle Thrush nesting again

Walked through the park on Easter Sunday morning on my way towards Crofton Park and an hour or so later returned from the direction of Ladywell.  It was cold and windy so, sensibly perhaps, not many birds about and not many people either, although I did spot the park keeper at a distance.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a pair of Mistle Thrush feeding beside the Cliffview Road path as I usually find them on the other side of the park.  There were no House Sparrows in the Cliffview hedge either, perhaps because part of it has been cut even lower than before.

Wandered over to see what progress had been made on the playground and hapily found a Mistle Thrush nesting in the very same fork of the tree as last year.  It's plainly a good spot for them even though it must be the busiest junction in the park.

Total haul?  Blackbird (1), Chaffinch (3), Feral Pigeon (2), Goldfinch (1), Mistle Thrush (3), Starling (3)

I also met one of our friendly dog-walkers who'd seen a woman picking daffodils in the park and a Glendale van leaving tyre tracks along the grass verge.

On the positive side, I was pleased to see the brambles that hung over the fence along Vicars Hill were cut right back just a couple of days after the last Friends of Hilly Fields meeting.  It's nice to know they make a difference!

Hedge trimming continues

There's a noticable change to the park as you walk along the Cliffview Road side of the park because the trimming of the boundary hedge down to a metre or so is continuing.

This must make a huge difference to the amount of light those houses receive in the afternoon.

I'm also happy to report that we now have a new supply of birdfood. The feeder was filled sometime during the last week, for which the birds and I are grateful and Vicki (Nature Conservation Officer) supplied more feed yesterday.

The feed we've used to date was black sunflower seed, but the feeder in the quiet garden has been filled with a birdseed mixture, probably one of the no-mess mixtures. It'll be interesting to see if that attracts more birds than black sunflower seed alone.

Hedge Trimming Begins

I was in the park yesterday, Saturday, to fill the birdfeeder which was completely empty. It was a joy to find almost the entire garden carpeted with flowers - see pic.



Glendale have begun to trim the hedges along the Cliffview Road side of the park. The first few metres of hedge are trimmed.









Also there's new planting and fences repaired - thanks mainly, I understand, to Keith the Park Keeper.