Mike Dilger’s wildlife watching

In his series of great places to watch wildlife in the UK, the star of BBC One’s The One Show this month reveals how the green spaces in our towns and cities offer an oasis to wildlife and a crucial place to connect with nature.

Find out what wildlife abounds in our urban parks and green spaces

Back in 1840, Joseph Strutt, whose family had accrued a fortune in textiles, decided to donate a 4.5ha plot of land in Derby for use as a public park. Designed by John Loudon, a leading horticulturalist of the day, Derby Arboretum became an instant hit as a haven from the smog for the citizens of what was, at the time, a heavily industrialised town.

With entry to the park being free, this philanthropic model proved so popular that public parks quickly began springing up in other urban areas, and there are today around 27,000 dotted across the UK. Ranging enormously, from huge recreational areas with a plethora of facilities and amenities to small neighbourhood plots known only within the immediate community, parks must be considered among the most important green spaces remaining in our towns and cities. They are well used and much loved too, with a 2016 parliamentary report estimating that 37m people, or 57 per cent of the UK’s population, regularly use them for recreation and leisure. In essence, public parks give many people their only opportunity to regularly connect with nature and wildlife.

Despite current air pollution levels being considerably lower than during the height of the Industrial Revolution, public parks still play an important role in helping us clean up our act. The trees and shrubs, for example, are particularly effective at dampening down the noise of police sirens and jackhammers intruding from the surrounding city, while park flora filters some particulate airborne pollutants, such as soot and dust. Urban parks also absorb large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, thereby operating as very effective carbon sinks. This sequestration of carbon, in turn, help to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. In addition to their environmental credentials, public parks have become vital oases for a vast array of wildlife throughout the year. The key to this rich urban biodiversity is down to the fact that most

parks frequently pack a wide variety of habitats into a small area. With lawns, trees and water all considered highly desirable park features, the juxtaposition of these different habitats effectively transforms these urban green spaces into valuable nature reserves.

This complex mosaic enables the parks’ fauna to then seamlessly move between areas of grassland, woodland and wetland. Urban parks have even become a refuge for a number of species struggling in the wider countryside, such as frogs, hedgehogs and stag beetles – making them home to much more than feral pigeons, rats and squirrels!

So attractive is this green real estate embedded in our town and cities that species like blackbirds and song

thrushes, which were considered traditionally woodland creatures, are now being found at higher densities in parks and gardens than in their ancestral homes. Additionally, with park wildlife often accustomed to the frequent comings and goings of anyone, from joggers and cyclists to ramblers and dogwalkers, the birds and mammals tend to be far more tolerant of disturbance than in many comparable nature reserves beyond the green belt.

However, despite the wildlife in urban parks being reasonably approachable, the best nature encounters will inevitably occur when the park is at its least populated. So visits close to dawn or dusk should represent the optimum times for either spotting a prowling fox or hearing a hooting owl.

Finally, with cash-strapped councils seeing their park budgets cut, it can only be hoped that, in the future, parks will continue to be creative with their finances instead of resorting to the quick, easy fix of an entrance fee, which would be to the obvious detriment of all who want to escape the hustle and bustle.

Visits close to dawn or dusk should represent the optimum times for spotting a prowling fox or hearing a hooting owl.

Clockwise from top left: Liverpool’s Sefton Park is home to a rich variety of species; parks are vital wildlife corridors for urban foxes; tawny owls are now settling in town green spaces; pied wagtails roost in parks at night; unperturbed herons at Sefton Park’s lake; common park dweller, the coot.