page_title: Stanley Park, Blackpool
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Stanley Park, Blackpool / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: A group or pandemonium of rose-ringed parakeet have taken up residence inside a dead tree just near the acorn sculpture by the lake.
context_page_description: Stanley Park is a public park in the town of Blackpool on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England. It is the town's primary park and covers an area of approximately 104 hectares. The park was designed to include significant sporting provisions, along with formal gardens, a boating lake and woodland area. It was designed and built in the 1920s, under the eye of Thomas Mawson.
  It is located in the Great Marton and Layton areas of the town. It is Grade II* listed and is on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
  The park's largest gardens feature a fountain built with Italian marble and a number of statues including a pair of Medici Lions. The Italian gardens are overlooked by a cafe, designed by Mawson and built in a traditional Art Deco style, and include steps down to the boating lake. Surrounding the boating lake is a woodland area, including a protected area for wildlife. On one side of the lake is an amphitheatre surrounding a bandstand, also designed by Mawson.
  Towards the centre of the park there is a crossroads with a clock tower, dedicated to William Cocker.
context_section_description: The 0.12 ha (0.30-acre) northern island within the lake has, since 1993, held Lancashire County Biological Heritage Site status due to its heron nesting population. In 1993, there were seven active nests which increased to 43 in 2007.
  A variety of other birds can be sighted at the park including; the treecreeper, nuthatch, great spotted woodpecker, garden birds such as the great tit, the blue tit, the robin, recently, a near-pandemonium of rose-ringed parakeets (not normally indigenous to Blackpool) and tawny owls. Waterfowl, such as mute swans, great crested grebes, geese, moorhens, tufted ducks, shovelers and coots are also regularly sighted at the park.
  Blackpool's Countryside Experience, which includes Salisbury Woodland, Heron's Reach and Marton Mere Local Nature Reserve allows plants and animals to transverse between sites.
  The park has many native and non- native trees including the common oak, ash, willow, sycamore, holly and hawthorn. In 2003, an outbreak of Dutch elm disease resulted in the removal of elm trees within the park.
  Stanley Park is home to many mammals such as grey squirrels, hedgehogs and foxes.
caption: More recent addition to the park
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