Sunday 26 August 2012


A pair of Kestrels passed over Kensington Gardens. One was carrying some small object, and dropped it. The other swooped and neatly retrieved it as it fell, and they continued on their way. A pair playing together, probably.

In several places in the undergrowth, the burbling cries of young Blackbirds calling for food could be heard. Near the bridge there was a tremendous chittering and whirring noise coming out of a bush, like a Wren but even louder, and lower pitched. It turned out to be a young Robin demanding food from its parents, and clearly getting impatient.


There has been a large influx of Common Pochards on the Long Water. I counted 33 from a single vantage point at the Vista. Sometimes the total number on both lakes is only three or four. It is not clear to me where they come from, or where they go.


The Mute Swans with seven cygnets have re-established themselves in the patch of reeds were their nest was. They are probably feeling in need of a bit of territorial security after being caught twice, put into a straitjacket and carted about in a van.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gulls are definitely a pair. Here they stand in their favourite spot on the pointed corner of the canopy of the Dell restaurant, keeping a lookout in opposite directions for a Feral Pigeon rash enough to fly below them, so that a gull can drop on it and seize it by the back of the neck. Judging by the number of times I see them eating one when I pass the spot, the strategy is very successful.

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