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Parklife! Phoenix Park, Dublin West Only a couple
of kilometres west of the city centre is the Phoenix Park, Dublin’s biggest public park, and a vitally important location for biodiversity that supports around 40% of the bird species found in Ireland. Its surface is vast and, as such, it offers a little more shelter, security and anonymity to the more secretive and elusive of our birds, in particular to the colourful crow that is the jay and, more recently, to the relative newcomer to our shores, the great spotted woodpecker. The Park’s duck pond too can attract an interesting variety of waterfowl and many of the rarer duck varieties such as pochard, shoveler, ring necked duck and scaup are all on record as having spent time on the water there. Remember it’s a big park so if you like ‘getting your steps in’, it’s definitely the place for you! Take the 38 bus towards Damastown. Get off at Parkway Station. Walk 2km to the park entrance. Or take the 26 bus from Westmoreland St to Phoenix Park Gate. A young robin Your Local Park Juvenile robins don’t develop their red breast for several weeks after leaving the nest to reduce their risk of being attacked by their own parents! Chiffchaff The chiffchaff is so called for the way it sings its name out loud ‘chiff chaff chiff chaff’. But you don’t have to go to the Phoenix Park if you want to see birds of every size and hue – the smaller parks, your local park is a great place to go especially if you are new to the trade. Without having to walk too far you will see a much bigger variety of birds than you’d think. You only have to look and listen a bit more closely! In my local park for example, I can count over 40 varieties of birds that live in the trees alone. If there were a pond there, there’d be even more. And every so often something new and unusual will arrive unannounced to make your day. I recently had a lovebird set up camp in mine. It was most likely an escaped cage bird but, even so, it didn’t take it long to adapt to parklife and in the end found sanctity among the starlings. Blue Tit 21