Birds of Sosnovka park

The name Sosnovka became established in the 1830s, when a summer-house district was taking shape around the Forest Institute to the south. In summer 1844, Turgenev and Belinsky walked and talked among the pine rows. An earlier episode took place in February 1840, when Lermontov fought a duel with Ernest de Barante approximately at the site of today’s intersection of Torez and Svetlanovsky Avenues; Lermontov was exiled to the Caucasus afterwards. In 1893, the city’s mayor, V. A. Ratkov-Rozhnov, acquired the forest district. His son Anany cut avenues through its southern part, intending eventually to turn them into streets for a new summer-house district. The avenues in the park’s south-east still reflect the early twentieth-century layout. During the Second World War, Sosnovka had a military airfield: its runway was built in autumn and winter 1941, and the airfield remained in use until 1945. In the 1960s, as Shuvalovo-Ozerki was built up, a large stretch of forest was preserved and made into a forest park. A monument stands at the north-eastern edge of the former airfield, with a memorial cemetery for pilots nearby.

Birds recorded nearby include the great tit, hooded crow, Eurasian blue tit, rock pigeon and great spotted woodpecker.