Monday 4 August 2014

There were three Blackbirds feeding fledgelings in the Flower Walk. This father was briskly shovelling grubs into his offspring, hardly interrupting its constant squeaky cries for more.


The Great Crested Grebes at the island were also feeding their chicks with the plentiful small fish.


The red reflection in the water is from the Red Ensign on the little electric launch Peter Pan II.

After a while their father tired of carrying them, and tipped them off to be picked up by their mother.


The advantage of being the fishing, rather than the carrying, parent is that if you catch anything too large for the chicks you can eat it yourself.

Humans have rather strange ideas of what geese like to eat. This Greylag had been given a gherkin which someone just happened to be carrying around. After careful inspection, the bird ate it. Anyway, it will have been better for it than the usual bread.


A Wood Pigeon in an elder tree near the bridge had stopped eating the berries, although there were some left, and was eating the leaves instead. As you can see from the damage to the leaves, it had consumed a fair quantity.


The usual Common Tern was on a post near Peter Pan. It has a few white feathers in its black cap, perhaps a trace of left-over winter plumage.


This Mallard drake is fully in eclipse. Only his yellow bill and a trace of green on top of his head show that he isn't female.


He is also moulting his wing feathers, and is temporarily flightless. In this state, his drab eclipse plumage makes him less conspicuous and safer.

The Little Owl was back on his usual branch, gazing down imperturbably as three people took pictures of him.

1 comment:

  1. I never knew that Mallard drakes went that far! thanks for the education

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