Regent’s Park Birds

Regent's Park has been observed by several keen ornithologists over the years, viz. W.H. Hudson, Stanley Cramp and Ian Wallace to name a few. These people kept detailed records and submitted the data to the Natural History Society of London. I joined The Royal Parks in 1977 and passed on my observations from a young age to John Widgery who looked after the park in the morning before going to work and at lunch. In 3 years starting out as Guy Taplin's Assistant Bird Keeper I was lucky enough to be a Senior Bird Keeper while Guy became a renowned bird sculptor. After taking over, I was able to change the philosophy of the park and make the area more attractive to wildlife. This means increasing forest areas, planting reed beds, creating wildlife enclosures and connecting areas, allowing grass to grow and thus creating corridors for wildlife. These projects are often quite small, but allow insects, many of which have never been recorded in parks, to live and breed. This species then allows birds such as the reed warbler to become annual summer visitors. There are now 16 breeding pairs on the reed beds dotted around the lake and in Queen Mary Gardens.