July 1, 1996
Since Kevin was working on this day, I ended up sleeping very late (11:30), then wandered on my own into York under a light drizzle to change some currency. I discovered that the York City Centre is a charming warren of shops, pubs, and ancient buildings. After lunch and a guided bus tour, I found myself strolling through the Museum Gardens.
(A full description of all our activities in York can be found here)
These are beautiful gardens with a natural history museum (although I never made it into the museum – I spent all my time wandering in the gardens to look at the wildlife). I enjoyed walking through the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey (originally founded in 1055), and the Octagonal Tower. I absolutely loved these gardens- peaceful, cool and green, relaxing and very comfortable. And of course, I enjoyed seeing a lot of birds, and some fairly brazen wildlife – clearly the rabbits and squirrels are used to the presence of people.
Birds seen in the gardens included Swifts (the only species of swift in Britain). They’re very cute, and similar to our North American varieties when seen in flight. I also saw at least one wren, and again, there is just one species of European Wren, the same species that we call the Winter Wren* back home. Very tiny, and very cute! Saw many beautiful Eurasian Blackbirds today, and was happy to see another new species of thrush as well, the Song Thrush. Exotic Indian Peafowl are also found in the gardens, and while I won’t count them, they are beautiful, and can be seen (and heard) here.
*Note: this species has subsequently been split: European Wrens are now Troglodytes troglodytes while the Winter Wren is Troglodytes hiemalis.
July 2, 1996
Woke at 5:30 and took a morning walk through the Royal York Hotel Gardens and Memorial Garden. I saw a good variety of birds. Some of my favorites were several European Magpies, who seem to fill the niche filled by the Blue Jay in the eastern half of North America. They are gorgeous, and it’s fun and interesting to watch their antics, and what appears to be a complex social structure. Although simply called Robin in Britain, the little European Robin is very different from our North American variety. Not a thrush, it is much smaller, and has very distinctive markings. Yes, both species have a red breast, but it would be very difficult to confuse these two species. Woodpigeon, Rock Dove and Stock Dove were all present in the garden, as were European Blackbirds and Carrion Crow.
After the garden, I had thought to walk through the Museum Gardens again, but they weren’t open yet for the day, so instead I walked west on the River Walk that runs alongside the River Ouze. On the way to the river, I spotted my first Collared Dove, a beautiful bird that is very similar to our Mourning Doves in the U.S., but with distinctive markings so that, even side-by-side, they’d be easy to tell apart. The bird was sitting on a light fixture about 8 feet off the ground, allowing me to get a good, long look.
While walking on the trail, I saw Swift, a few Black-headed Gulls, Mallard and House Sparrows. I was also able to get good enough looks to confidently identify Sand Martins flying over the river. I think this is the same bird as our Bank Swallow, but I somehow prefer calling this group of birds “martins” – it seems more natural to me for some reason. I also saw some European Starlings, which are of course quite familiar as invasive birds back home. It was nice to see them in their native habitat and I found that when I’m not feeling overwhelmed by sheer numbers (and resenting their presence in North America), I was able to stop and notice that this really is a striking, beautifully-colored little bird (even if they are somewhat annoying otherwise, even here in Britain).
After my walk, I had breakfast with Kevin and Lee, and then went into town on my own. I walked through the (now open) Museum Gardens, where I saw a couple of new birds. I spotted a handsome little corvid on the steps of the natural history museum, and recognized immediately that this was no small crow – I was excited to see my first Jackdaw! The name is so familiar to me – from literary references, I think – and they are attractive and charming to watch. I would see several more during my stay in Britain, but I will always remember this one individual fondly for hanging around long enough for me to look them up in the book! I spotted another new bird – a small one, somewhat drab and yellowish-green – high in a tree near the edge of the park. It took me a while to ID . . . actually, I was unable to really figure out what sort of bird this was until later that evening, when I scoured the field guide. This Greenfinch is a very pretty little bird, even if it was somewhat elusive (in the field guide, at least haha).
Species List
Common Swift (Apus apus), Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), Rock Dove (Columba livia f. domestica), Stock Dove (Columba oenas) Common Wood-Pigeon (Columba palumbus), Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula), Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos), European Greenfinch (Chloris chloris), Western Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula), Carrion Crow (Corvus corone), European Robin (Erithacus rubecula), Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica), Sand Martin (Riparia riparia), Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto decaocto), possible House Martin, European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Let me know what you think!