A walk in the park

I heard yesterday that in a park in Santa Ana, near Cartagena, some Redwings which were first seen a week ago were still around, so this afternoon (Thursday, 27^th Feb.) I had a walk around the park.  I’d never been here before, and was quite amazed how big it is, with various areas of children’s playgrounds, tennis courts and general sports areas, but more interesting to me, a variety of trees in open ground with lots of puddles formed from the irrigation system. There were Collared Doves, Blackbirds and Chaffinches everywhere and a large flock of the introduced Monk Parakeets.  Checking through the Blackbirds, I found a group of three Redwings feeding with them, which seemed very strange, as here in Spain I’m used to seeing them normally in mountainous areas such as Sierra Espuña or Revolcadores – and here they were in an urban park with all that goes with it – dog walkers, joggers and cyclists! I spent about 30 minutes watching them until the heavens opened when I headed back home.

Part of the park at Santa Ana

 There was a good variety of birds - here Blackbird, Hoopoe and Redwing

 A close-up of the Hoopoe

 The group of three Redwings with a male Blackbird

The Redwings were wandering about, feeding with the Blackbirds ...

 

 ... and didn't seem at all bothered by human company

 Of course, what kept them there were the pools of water from the irrigation system

 Also wandering around feeding on the ground, a flock of Monk Parakeets ...

 ... they wouldn't let you too close, but were nowhere near as wary as I'm used to

Other birds seen in the park were Goldfinch, Serin, Greenfinch, Crossbill, House Sparrow, Black Redstart, Hoopoe and White Wagtail.