The birds at St James’s Park London

It was my birthday recently and since the weather was (surprisingly!) beautiful still here in the UK, I decided to be a tourist for the day and check out all of these places that I have never been to in London. St James’s Park is beautiful, and right by Buckingham Palace and the Horse Guards, but I’ve never worked close to it and it’s always been a little too out of the way to really wander around. But on my birthday, I made a point to have an explore. And after a whole day of walking 23km around all of London, I can say I succeeded!

It also blew my mind just how much wildlife there is in St James’s Park. There are approximately 17 species of bird which regularly breed in the park, including mute swans and a resident colony of pelicans. There are signs throughout the park which highlight which animals and waterfowl next in which areas, and also provide interesting little stories about how the animals came to live here. The pelicans, for example, were a gift from Russian diplomats in the 1600s and there has been a colony within St James’s Park ever since. St James’s Park is also a conservation area for butterflies and bats, and all of the birds we saw seemed to be very comfortable around people.

I have also never seen so many birds just…sitting. It probably sounds silly now but I don’t think I have ever seen a pigeon sitting down. Or laying down. Which was just as adorable as I thought it would be, and it also made me think that they must all feel quite relaxed with the crowds to just…sit around. Can we also just appreciate how beautiful pigeons actually are?! Look at this stunner, who was all too happy to sit and give me quite the photoshoot.

There were also multiple breeds of ducks around, including the common mallard duck. The signs said that they also had a group of mandarin ducks who lived in the area, but I unfortunately didn’t see any, which is disappointing as they are truly beautiful birds! Now I have looked online to see what breed this little cutie is, but I cannot figure it out! If anyone can shed some light, please do let me know in the comments! If no one knows, I will just have to revisit St James’s Park to read all their information plaques again to try and figure it out…

As always, there was a heron that was strutting his stuff about the place. They are beautiful birds – and I am always surprised by how big they truly are – and absolutely used to be a dinosaur way back in the day.

There were of course some beautiful swans around, including black swans! Again, I didn’t know that black swans were actually real, so this was very exciting for me. I did see someone trying to pet the swan and so again I wish to raise this point: DO NOT TOUCH WILD ANIMALS. And especially, DO NOT TOUCH SWANS. All swans in the UK are actually owned by the monarchy, so by touching one or harming one you could be liable for criminal charges. Aside from that though, swans are massive, powerful birds and can do some serious harm to people if they wished to. As such, be respectful of them and do not, unless absolutely necessary for their safety or yours, attempt to touch them.

And easily the coolest bird there (not that any of these birds are uncool) has to be the pelicans. Thankfully you couldn’t get too close to these guys as they seem to prefer being away from the crowds, but even from a distance they are amazing to see. They also had a group of cormorants around them for company, and many were spending the day sunning themselves, with their huge wings outspread to really soak up the last of this summer sunshine.

There were also a large amount of Greylag goose walking about the grounds. I feel I need to tell people, especially those that may not be used to geese, but geese can be very aggressive and very opiniated. Whilst we were walking around, we saw quite a few groups of people that were just trying to enjoy a picnic being surrounded by groups of geese who were clearly looking for a little treat. Form afar it was quite entertaining, watching these geese stare down someone for a bite of their sandwich, but I imagine for that person it was quite scary. Just be sure to keep your wits about you if you do decide to visit. I don’t believe the geese will be aggressive in the sense that they will actually cause you any harm, but they absolutely will want to join your picnic. With or without your permission. So just to be warned.

Needless to say the whole place is beautiful, and the amount of wildlife around just adds to that beauty. If you are ever in London, I would highly recommend making the trip down to St James’s Park. Luckily, it is very close to the big tourist areas such as Buckingham Palace and the Royal Horse Guards, as well as being parallel to the Mall, which is a very long stretch of road leading to Buckingham Palace which is also a very pretty walk.

T xxx