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| Ring Necked Parakeet - Greenbank Park |
I have not been around much lately which is an obvious testament to my lack of blogging! Yet I have had decent sightings recently, most notably breeding pair of Ring Necked Parakeets in Greenbank Park. If you face the noticeboard (the one at the northern end of the park) and look up and to your right they are nesting in the obvious hole in the Plane Tree, with chicks (or maybe just chick) viewable at times. Be patient as the adults disappear for long periods and are remarkably silent and wary when nesting. Another pair has joined the resident pair over the last couple of weeks and have been duly dispatched! I think his pair may be breeding around Greenbank College/allotments area, in Sefton Park I presume that a pair (or more) are breeding as I have heard birds calling from the area behind the cafe over the last few weeks and Will reports he was watching one in the park yesterday (nice one Will).
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| Ring Necked Parakeet - Greenbank Park |
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| Ring Necked Parakeet - Greenbank Park |
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| Ring Necked Parakeet - Greenbank Park |
Apart from Parakeets I have found a great deal of other hole nesting species in the area, in Greenbank Park two pairs of breeding Great Spotted Woodpeckers have fledged young as have two pairs of Nuthatch, a breeding pair of Treecreepers are ever present around the north end of the lake (with a breeding pair close to the footbridge on Mossley Hill Road North), and a pair of Coal Tits are nesting in a box in that area. Other passerines in Greenbank include a breeding pair of Pied Wagtails, and two Blackcaps on territory (as is one on the bridge on Penny Lane along with a Chiff Chaff), On the lake the Mute Swans have again been unsuccessful at rearing young again this year, three broods of Coot have hatched but are quickly dispatched by the Lesser Black Backed Gulls (gruesome sight). I have heard a Little Owl calling during the night recently and as with previous years seems to come from the direction of the allotments in between Greenbank Road/Drive, 2 Grey Herons can be seen regularly using Greenbank Park lake during the early mornings.
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| Grey Heron - Greenbank Park |
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| Grey Heron - Greenbank Park |
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| Grey Heron & 2 Mute Swans - Greenbank Park |
The warm weather has brought lots of Pipistrelles out and at dusk can be seen all over the area. I have found a great deal of Cuckoo flower in the area recently which probably explains the occurrence of good numbers of Orange Tips, also their have been plenty of Holly Blues around too. I recently discovered more of the rare Solomons Seal over the wall behind the Penny Lane sign and the Honey Garlic is again in flower in Greenbank Park (this is arguably one of the rarest plants in the North-West region).
Elsewhere in Wavertree Mystery 3 male Whitethroats, 3 male Blackcaps, and a chiff chaff are on territory. In the woodland adjacent to Greenbank Drive I have found 3 Blackcap, 4 Chiff Chaff and a Willow Warbler all on territory, together with breeding Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, and Song Thrush. In Sefton Park the Swans have raised three young, with both Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch breeding in the same tree in the dell, Grey Wagtails are breeding nearby too. A Nuthatch reared young in the lone Ash Tree along the main path behind the cafe and Peregrines are still being occasionally spotted in the area (where exactly are they?), odd Buzzards are occasionally seen loafing around on thermals or being harassed by Crows and probably originate from further east in the city.
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| Honey Garlic - Greenbank Park |
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| Solomons Seal - North Mossley Hill Road |
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| Mallard - Sefton Park |
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| Ramsoms (Wild Garlic) - Greenbank Drive Wood |
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| Ramsoms (Wild Garlic) - Greenbank Drive Wood |
17 comments:
Hi Danny ,am sad the swans have failed for a 2ND year.The ring neck nest you describe was i am sure occupied by nuthatches last year.The peregrines are becoming an enigma?? i'm certain they have nested on the derelict flats.
Regards,
Tony.
hi danny, was trying to identify this bird, and stumbled across your blog, wondering if you could help. It was seen in the smoking area of my work (a pub on slater st in town) and it took a pigeon.
my guesses are either female kestral(maybe a sparrowhawk but doesnt seem stripy enough), merlin or a juvenile peregrine, the latter would great!
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/424583_496673827029010_1246802799_n.jpg
the picture is all that was taken unfortunatly it isnt the clearest quality!
my email is ballhuit@hotmail.com if you have any ideas!
xander
Hi Alex
The bird in question is a male Sparrowhawk, a good sighting so far into the city centre. Thanks for the query.
Danny
hi Danny, i work on castle street right up in town on the 4th floor with big flat roofs opposite, we get lots of gulls out there as you'd expect but also wagtails, occasional flocks of goldfinches coming past and i've seen sparrowhawks a couple of times.
just been for an hour in sefton park, good to see plenty of little grebes still on the lake, seem to have been here in numbers all year. even better to see two youngsters on the lake so at least one pair were succesful eventually. the 2 surviving cygnets are now nearly adult size and starting to turn white. coot numbers have already increased noticeably.
On the palm house feeders were lots of great, coal and blue tits, nuthatch, chaffinch, loads of robins about and a few wrens in the bushes. best spot was the first buzzard i've seen over the park, surprisingly low at first and being mobbed before it circled high above the park for a while. some interesting fungus around at the moment too.
anyone passing through greenbank park might want to check out the very large and very impressive bracket fungus that's sprung up around the 'stump seat' next to the greenbank lane entrance - one of the biggest i've seen.
during an interesting and unplanned bit of birding today 2 adult buzzards were very low over aigburth, just near lark lane, circling at low level. haven't seen them so low over the houses in this area but i suppose they'd just come over the park, i noticed them whilst doing some yard work as they were calling. had the camera handy too so i can verify they were definitely buzzards! and in the course of a half hour wait for a taxi at speke retail park just as the light was fading i saw a sparrowhawk, a group of 8 swans, wagtails, a heron, loads of gulls in loose V formations all presumably heading off to roost, but interestingly all were heading towards town except for the swans. there's also a resident flock of starlings that seems to live in the car park and roost in the trees there. being by the river and the airfield it seems like a surprisingly good spot to spot birds.
I sighted a Ring-necked Parakeet in a tree at Liverpool Hope University near Taggart Avenue
couple of parakeets on the sefton park feeders early this morning, along with a very out of place looking heron stood underneath the feeders. friends say it was still there later in the afternoon so perhaps it's ill? seems an odd place for it hang out on the ground. around the park were the usual mix of tits including loads of long tails (haven't really seen them over the summer but the cold weather seems to bring them out), chaffinch, nuthatch, jay, grey wagtail, dunnock, g s woodpecker, treecreeper, no sign of any redwing on the playing fields yet. on the lake the little grebes are still there in numbers inlcuding this years 2 youngsters that are a good size now. 20+ canada geese and decent numbers of moorhen and coot as has been the case all year.
I popped along to Greenbank and Sefton Parks earlier as it was such a lovely morning.To start with a female Great Spotted Woodpecker was on a tree on Penny Lane opposite the sports field. Also plenty of Long-tailed Tits (lots in both parks too),Goldfinches and Chaffinches.
In Greenbank Park there were the usual Nutchatches,tits,finches,Black-headed Gulls and one solitary Lesser Black-backed Gull.
Walking down Greenbank Lane alongside the halls of residence I suddenly heard a great commotion. A group of Parakeets were mobbing a Sparrowhawk! The small male sat in a tree overlooking the allotments to take a short breather. There were also Redwings in the tall trees on the lane overlooking the allotments. The trees were also noisy from large groups of finches,tits and some Nutchatches busily feeding.
In Sefton Park another GSW plus Nutchatches,Treecreepers and Goldcrests.Plus the usual tits and finches.On the lake were plenty of Common and Black-headed Gulls. Plenty of Mute Swans and Canada Geese. I also counted about about a dozen Little Grebes. The most I've seen in the park. There was also one solitary female Tufted Duck.
I also spotted feeding in a tree behind the palm house a warbler. I assume it was a wintering Chiffchaff but it looked very yellow in the morning sun.It had a brief set to with a Blue Tit and then returned to feeding amonst the leaves.
I also saw the one legged Jay down by the Fairy Glen feeding on some seed that had been left on a path.
Hi Danny
Saw 2 Ring necked parakeets at sefton park earlier today. They were hanging around the trees near the back of the palm house. I'd never seen them in this country before so I was pretty delighted
Have just got back from Sefton Park, and saw one in the trees by the cafe. Saw 2 flying over last week also, first time I have seen them myself.
I have just seen the ring necked parrakeet in the big tree round the bak of my friends house behind Greenbank Park !! This is the second time I have seen this lovely bird...how do they survive the winter??
Hi I live in Gateacre maisonettes on Halewood Road there appears to be at least 3 "large-ish" green birds flying around and making a whole lot of noise cant quite manage to photograph them but i beleive they may be parakeets!!!
My son and I were fishing at Greenbank last week and saw 7 or 8 ring necked parakeets fly over.
Seen! Paraqueets about 5 in sefton park today x
Also seen 1 parakeet at back of palm house sefton park. Couple weeks ago (just found your blog)
Seen in the last week a Greater Spotted Woodpecker at the bird feeder outside my flat on Croxteth Drive. Today my wife and I spotted by the reeds in Sefton Park a Kingfisher and a Parakeet in a near by tree.
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