Pheasant in Brookmill Park, London

My last post was about the parakeets that have settled and are thriving in London. I recently joined a nature walk from Loampit Vale to Blackheath in southeast London and whilst walking through Brookmill Park we saw a female pheasant. Apparently this bird had arrived a few weeks ago and seemed to have settled in the park.

Brookmill Park in Lewisham is a small but attractive park through which the Ravensbourne River flows.

Both upstream and downstream of the park, the river flows over concrete whereas in the park it is in its natural setting

 

There are some nice trees-

London plane

 Surprisingly the pussy willow was already out, it was only mid January. These are the furry catkins -

 

Pussy willow is popular for the Chinese during Chinese New Year which in 2015 is 19 Feb.

Parakeets in London

Green coloured parrots / parakeets are commonly seen in parts of London now. They are not native to the UK, they are an Afro-Asian species. They have only resided in London in significant numbers since the 1990s and are thriving.

The ring-necked, or rose-ringed, parakeet is the UK's most abundant naturalised parrot - it became established in the wild in the 1970s after captive birds escaped or were released. They are easily identified by their bright green colouration and the male of the species has a distinctive red ring around the neck.

They obviously survive the cold winter temperatures and maybe competing with the smaller native birds for food.

See more on RSPB site.

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UPDATE 2019

In Dec 2019 the media was full of these style headlines "parakeet crime map debunks myths". These are various myths about how the parakeets arrived in the UK as its never been known for sure.
See one of the many articles on BBC page.

Donkeys

A friend in Somerset takes care of two of the beach donkeys during the winter. In the summer these donkeys work on Weston super Mare beach, giving rides to children.

I've always loved donkeys and as a child used to enjoy feeding them with sugar lumps. So I was happy to go and see the two donkeys at my friends farm. They are well looked after, with a large field to graze in and each one has an install stall -

Weston super Mare, Somerset

In July 2014 I went to Weston Super Mare for the first time for decades. Weston is a beach resort in Somerset.

One reason for going was to see the donkeys as a friend cares for 2 donkeys on her farm during the winter.

 

See also - The donkeys in winter.