Its a grey Heron there's 3 or 4 knocking about down there Fleets Dam & Smithies Res. Also a colony of parakeets.
Just seen a fluffy baby Jay (the bird, not our resident bbs poster!) in the shrubbery at the end of the garden. Sadly, the local council have decided to exuberantly cut back trees and shrubs in the park that backs onto our garden at peak bird nesting season. Madness.
Daft that making things look neat and tidy takes precedence over looking after what little wildlife we have left. Really winds me up.
It's definitely not neat. I've spent much of today trying to find out who is doing it and what they are doing. I finally had dialogue with one of the local councillors who have said they'll send an officer to investigate, but ironically after they sent a plan of park maintenance, it seems its actually the council that have pushed for this to be done now rather than wait til Autumn/Winter. The most ironic thing... the point of this maintenance is to increase wildlife in the park! Not seen a bird on the feeders for 2 days, unsurprisingly scared off by the noise of chainsaws and the machinery to chip the branches into mulch.
No doubt a decision made by a committee of no face no name robots that have zero clue regarding what they're actually doing.
It's a bit tricky as the park is the responsibility of the supermarket just behind it and over the years, they've not been doing what they should have in maintaining it. To the point we've managed the trees and ivy behind our property in the winter months. Now they've finally got them to look after it and they choose the worst possible time to do it. At least the councillor came back to me. Environmental health, Sainsburys, the local police and RSPB were all pretty woeful in comparison. Just hope the birds haven't been affected too much. And no doubt I'll have the same fight next year all over again!
Interested to hear about the parakeets. I've been wondering when they might reach these parts. Are they the ring-neck variety that have colonised the south of England?