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Autumn wildlife in St James’s Park

What I love about London is the numerous open spaces and parks dotted around the city. It gives you a chance to escape the busy streets and enjoy nature within minuets of emerging from the closest underground tube stations. This week I headed to St James’s park for some inspiration and I found so much!

Am I the only person that did not know there were pelicans in the park? They were donated from a Russian ambassador to Charles II  in the 17th century. (I feel a new bird card joining the character collection about to happen) They get fed daily between 2.30 and 3.00pm but can sometimes feast on pigeons that get a little close! They are fantastic birds and not bothered by the flocks of tourists taking photos the other side of the tiny fence.

Talking of friendly animals the squirrels made by day, they come running up to you to say hello! We witnesses a cheeky chap heading into a ladies handbag, and running out with a walnut. She must have been a regular, I don’t often have whole walnuts in my handbag. As we walked around we noticed more and more people on benches with little bags of nuts, all with their own distinctive call to get the squirrels running over to them.

It was great to see all of the wildlife and was so pleased to see that there are whole areas fenced off from people to give the birds and animals some sanctuary for nesting. But my main inspiration came from the wonderful colours from the trees shedding their leaves. This year the spectrum of colours has been magical. I love the vivid yellow and rich reds. This year was particularly spectacular because of the sunny days and cool nights we had at the end of the summer.I know there was so much more to explore, I’m going to head back for a bit of bird spotting and try and work out all the different names for the wonderful breeds of ducks I have never seen before!

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