London parks: what is and isn't "wild"? (1 Viewer)

[stevethehydra]

By a random quirk of life, one of my first opportunities to do any birding in January was in St James's Park, London (which for those that don't know, along with Regent's Park and Hyde Park, has a lake with large numbers of "exotic" birds kept on it). Now, I'm not a strict "lister" by any means, but I do like to keep track of which birds I first see on which dates in succesive years, so I do keep a somewhat relaxed year list... but the London parks do provide some ambiguities!

I'm obviously not going to list the likes of Black Swan, Red-breasted Goose and White Pelican... and equally I'm not going to doubt the "genuineness" of gulls, grebes or cormorants. But there are a few species there that are "British birds" and could plausibly be found in places that don't have "exotics", but that the location makes me feel a bit dubious about... so, do you consider the following "wild"/"listable" in a London park?

Greylag Goose
Tufted Duck
Common Pochard
Goldeneye
Mallard
Gadwall
Wigeon
Shelduck
Egyptian Goose
Mandarin Duck (the last 2 are species I count when I see them, for example, on the River Tame in Greater Manchester...)

Obviously these are all species that I can easily see in plenty of other places without any controversy over their "wildness", but I'm just wondering if I should list them all as 6th Jan this year, or wait until I see them somewhere less dodgy...

 

[birderUK007]

I too often bird in London, most recently the wetland centre and can say that I have spotted unambiguous wild versions of all you mention above with regularity with exception to Goldeneye and Shelduck. That's not to say wild versions of these species cannot be seen in London but I would certainly be suspicious of them in the area you mention.

 

[Nutcracker]

I'd tick . . .

Greylag Goose - yes (Cat. C)
Tufted Duck - yes
Common Pochard - yes
Goldeneye - no in summer; yes if there's an obvious increase in numbers in winter, otherwise no
Mallard - yes
Gadwall - no
Wigeon - no
Shelduck - no
Egyptian Goose - probably no; a bit too far from their (semi-) natural habitat
Mandarin Duck - yes (Cat. C)

 

[SimonLS]

In St James's Park the Goldeneye, Wigeon, Shelduck and Mandarin are wing-clipped/pinioned - the others listed are free flying.

Other native species in the collection include/have included Barnacle Goose, Eider, Smew, Pintail and Red-breasted Merganser.

Wild birds do turn up occassionally, inlcuding a drake Scaup for a few days a number of years back.

 

[stevethehydra]

Thanks all.

I only saw two Goldeneyes, and they were associating with obviously-not-wild Hooded Mergansers, so they probably don't count then.

I did also see Barnacle Goose and Smew, but assumed they had no chance of being wild or part of a self-sustaining population.

As for the Egyptians, I didn't see any fly that day, but have seen them freely flying before in Hyde and Regent's Parks.

I thought it was illegal to pinion/wing-clip native species... or maybe it's the other way round and it's illegal to keep free-flying non-natives? Although I know of a few places where parrots are kept free-flying... guess it can't be illegal if the London parks authorities do it though...

 

[aeshna5]

Probably a good idea is to look closely at the birds to see if they are pinioned. If they are then you know for sure they're not wild.

 

[Dan Foy]

I visited last week and there were free-flying fully-winged:

• Mallard
• Greylag Geese
• Canada Geese
• Mute Swan
• Tufted Duck
• Pochard
• Gadwall
• Egyptian Geese
• Bar-headed Goose (1 fuĺly-winged)
• Ross's Goose (1 fully-winged)

The collection (pinioned) birds included:

• Wigeon
• Chiloe Wigeon
• Black Swan
• White Pelican
• Hooded Merganser
• Barnacle Geese
• Bar-headed Goose (1 pinioned bird)

Crazy place!