Other Creatures of St James’s Park
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about a trip I made to St James’s Park to see the pelicans that live there. However, the park has more to offer, and probably more of what you might expect from a park in London: pigeons, swans, a squirrel and a couple of geese.
Pigeons
If I go to London to take photos, I have a rule that I must adhere to: don’t return without a photo of a pigeon! They get a bad reputation, but personally I love a pigeon and they’ve got a lot of character. So here are some pigeons in the park that day. One of them is having a well-deserved rest, one of them looks furious as it walks in front of my camera obligingly. And one woman the pigeons seemed to adore, who was clearly pretty keen on them.
Swans
If there is one wildlife subject that I would recommend to a beginner, it would be a swan. They are gorgeous, pretty easy to find in the UK and big enough that you do not need a fancy lens to take photos of them. Here are some of the ones I saw at St James’s Park. You will notice one of them is a black swan, which is not quite as easy to find.
Squirrel
Grey squirrels are common in the UK. You see them a lot but they do not hang around very much, as is demonstrated in this photo. This squirrel whizzed past me and I managed a quick snap, catching it in full stretch as it raced to the next tree.
Geese
These geese had nice friendly faces and seemed to do everything together. I took a lot of photos of them individually, but felt it was nicer to see them alongside one another because that was my experience from the day.
