Francis William Bird Park – Walpole, MA

http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/bird-park.html

Bird Park is a great place to spend an afternoon.  You can park in a small lot right near the playground near Pleasant St or if that’s full, you can head around the corner to the much large parking lot on the top of the hill. From there, we usually take our double stroller around down the sidewalk back over to the playground lot to head into the park.  The park has a few different areas which ensures it never gets boring for little ones.  We typically start at the playground.  There is a nice newer playground in a fenced in area that is perfect for smaller children.  It has some neat features like a wooden truck you can climb on and drive and a front loader you can scoop up sand with.  There are also other play features outside of the fence which the kids love as well.

My son is always drawn over to the tennis courts and basketball courts which are actually used as more of a race track.  There are numerous cozy coupes and other cars and tricycles left there for all to play with and the kids love driving all over.  I’m not sure how the park allows this because I dont think you can actually play bball if you wanted to but hey, its great for me and the kids!  There are also always kids riding their bikes down the sidewalks of the park.  It’s a great safe area to ride.

When the kids are bored of the playground, we take a walk over to the duck pond.  It’s nice because there are sidewalks so you can bring a stroller.  My two decide to walk.  Both kids terrorize some geese along the way by chasing them, squealing with glee.  But no worries, no geese (or children) were actually harmed during the making of this blog.  We pass a beautiful stone stage along the way.  Once we reach the duck pond, my daughter grabs a stick and pretends to fish while my son sits on the bench and eats a snack.  We wait until a duck comes to visit and go for a swim.  It doesnt take long.

There are also a number of little trails and a babbling brook towards this end of the park to explore.  With the wide open fields and numerous places to check out, it’s a great place to run, fly a kite or just get out some energy.

Few things to note:

• I feel completely safe here at all times and its always packed with kids but there was an incident of a purse snatching so keep an eye on your belongings
• They often have events like ice cream socials, movie nights, concerts or other holiday events.   You can check out their FB page for more info.

How to get there:

Pleasant Street and Poley Ln, Walpole, MA