Several people have told me that they have caught a glimpse of a Kingfisher in the park. Sue reported it to us on this site and since then, several others have seen it. What fantastic news! I wonder if anyone could get a picture of it? That may be a hard ask given how fast they move.

The winter, as we all know, has been extraordinarily warm and wet. The ground in the park has been saturated for weeks now. Throw a ball for the dog and it goes splosh, rather than bouncing. The wildlife has also been fooled by the warmth with flowers blooming really early. This cherry plum, near the toddler play park was out on the first of January and daffodils have been up for weeks now.

Over the winter period I have been thinking that it might be really interesting to launch a project to try to identify ‘Everything that Lives‘ in the park. Some of us joined in the inspiring Wildwood events last year with Ed Drewitt and others helping us to appreciate the wildlife that exists in our park. I wonder if we could build on that to establish a project that sets itself to identify all the trees, grasses, birds and bats, all that lives in the streams and ponds, in fact ‘everything that lives’ in the park?

Everyone could join in, young and old, and we might use one of the simple web tools like inaturalist that allows you simply to  take a photo and upload it to the site with its location and offers help in making the identification. It can also catalogue sound (eg of birds) and digital film and has an app for using a mobile phone. You might like to check this out  and see our project already listed with the Cherry Plum observation as an example here

For those who do not like this sort of technical approach I am sure we can find other ways of doing it as well.

i have also wondered whether we might be able to host some events with Ed Drewitt and others to help us move things along.

If you are interested in this project and how we might do it, you are invited to a meeting at our house, 50 Guest Avenue, on Tuesday 16th February at 8pm so we can chat through its potential. To help with numbers please let me know you are coming by emailing me at chris.sunderland@blueyonder.co.uk

Finally, here is one creature that has been braving the weather in the top of a tree, a thrush enjoying the morning sunshine.