Sunday morning continued the clear, bright, sunny (and cold!) days we have enjoyed recently and 16 birdwatchers joined Andy, David and Paul for our first early morning Bird Walk of 2025. As we collected at the Childwall Lane entrance it was clear that the Merlin app is increasingly being used (and rightly so) to identify birds from their calls and songs. We encourage this and discussed its use – with caution; it is useful but not infallible, especially if a bird is rare in the area.
Obligingly the spring warblers have appeared – the chiffchaffs have been here since early March, and the blackcaps have started singing in recent days. They are a lovely sign of spring. Once thought of as purely migratory spring visitors, both species have started to overwinter in the UK too – a sign of the effects of climate change. We heard them at the entrance and on the fields.
The dry weather meant we were able to venture further on to the fields than we have recently and even to cross the top field (often very boggy in spring).
It proved a productive day; we saw or heard 26 species in 2 hours. David had helpfully produced for the walk a list of the most commonly seen species on the CWF site and we duly ticked these off – and added extras. One of the benefits of a group walk is ‘many eyes and ears’ so you see and hear more as a group than you do alone. A good example was the bullfinch heard, then seen flying away, and the kestrel seen on the top field.
A feature of CWF – and all the south Liverpool parks – is the recent appearance of ring necked parakeets; strikingly noisy vivid green birds which have spread out from Sefton and Princes Parks. We definitely have pairs of parakeets nesting this year on the site (look and listen for them by the pond) and we were treated to a wonderful sight of 5 parakeets feeding on fresh shoots and flowers on the middle field. They are not at all shy. They are a very successful introduced /escaped species which will compete with our other hole nesting birds such as stock doves, which is a concern. We look forward to seeing Bob and Linda’s photos of them.
Also seen by our ponds were a mallard (now a regular sight) and a pair of greylag geese noisily flying over. These were not the first ones seen here but are definitely not a common sighting.
Entering the woods, the nuthatches and great spotted woodpeckers provided the sound track. High in a tree a pair of stock doves were obligingly still so we could examine the differences between them and wood pigeons (slimmer, no white on the neck or wings, and all black eyes).
Our plan is to offer a Members Only Bird Walk for FCWF members in May. We would love to have you join us. If you are not a member please join FCWF.
Andy Scott