April Wildlife Update 2025

We’re back with another wildlife update! Here’s the highlights from across the Park this April:

Birds:

  • Common Terns – are back and have been showing interest in the Tern rafts on Overton lake.
  • Black Tern
  • Gadwall – the first ducklings seen here since 1993 (we think) were spotted in mid-April
  • Cuckoos
  • Common Swifts
  • Marsh Harrier – had a couple of sightings
  • Oystercatcher – see image on the right
  • Common Sandpiper
  • Green Sandpiper
  • Ring Ouzel
  • Grasshopper Warbler

Other wildlife:

  • Snake’s Head Fritillaries – looking good both on the bank near the Pyramid sculpture and on the mound, near Willow Bridge
  • Grass Snake
  • Meadow Saxifrage – in flower in HFH garden at the moment. There’s also a few plants flowering along Ham Lane, between Orton Meadows and Cherryfields. It’s quite a localised plant, so great to have a good number of plants here.
  • Green Hairstreak butterfly – a stunning little butterfly, iridescent green in colour. They’re very vulnerable to habitat loss as they live in very small colonies, so we’re really glad they’ve been spotted here again.
  • Noctule bats – the UK’s biggest bats, best numbers ever seen around the Lakeside end of the park.

What wildlife did you spot over the bank holiday?

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