Beacon Park’s woodland
Beacon Park has a range of habitats with brooks, a pool, wooded areas, mature trees, shrubberies and grassland to provide shelter, nest-sites and foraging for birds and mammals.
Significant work is taking place in the parks to conserve, enhance and monitor biodiversity through small projects, in line with the district council’s Biodiversity Strategy.
Projects often involve schools, park rangers, residents, friends, community groups and partners working together to promote biodiversity through practical actions and environmental education.
Bug hunts, bird and bat nest box construction, dawn chorus walks, bird identification events, fungal forays, bulb planting, composting, and tree, hedge and wildflower planting are a just a few of the events run in the parks. If you want to get involved with any wildlife events in the park, please visit the What’s On section to see what is coming up.
Surveys
We take part in annual surveying exercises with wildlife groups and local people. To find out how to get involved in future surveys, please contact us by emailing parks@lichfielddc.gov.uk or calling 01543 308869.
Download past wildlife surveys
Birds
Great Tits – photo courtesy of Kevin Birtles
Beacon Park has a wide variety of constantly changing species depending on the seasons.
In February the species seen in Beacon Park include siskin, nuthatch, long tailed tit, blue tit, great tit, tree creeper, pochard, redwing, mute swan, blackbird, wren, chaffinch, goldfinch, greenfinch, song thrush, coots, moorhens and dunnock to name a few.
If you are going to watch the birds, there are some basic rules to follow:
>> Avoid disturbing birds and their habitats – the birds’ interests should always come first
>> Know the law and the rules for visiting the countryside, and follow them
>> Think about the interests of wildlife and local people before passing on news of a rare bird, especially during the breeding season.
Your sightings are important for local conservation and to build the county’s ornithological history. Send your sightings to the County Bird Recorder via the Birdtrack website (external link)
Mammals
Field vole
A range of mammals live or visit the parks, although they may not be obvious. These include fox, squirrel, rabbit, mole, stoat, hedgehogs.
Although they are now naturalised and widespread, rabbits were introduced from the continent by the Normans as a delicacy. Grey squirrels are also non-native and were introduced from North America by the Victorians, their success being to the detriment of our native red squirrels.
The Parks diverse landscape, abundant insects and plentiful tree roost sites makes good habitat for bats. There are recent records of at least three species including pipistrelle, noctule and long-eared bats visiting the parks.
Across the district
Find out more about biodiversity across the district on Lichfield District Council’s biodiverstity page.