Sunday 16 November 2014

The Tawny Owls are having a very hard time with the Magpies and Jays. This is the female owl in the beech tree. When she opens her eyes wide it is a sign that she is about to take off, and a second later she did, flying into the nest hole pursued by a screaming mob.


I cam past later to find the male Tawny Owl in his usual place, and just as I arrived the mob turned up again. Here he is turning round with a look of weary annoyance to face his tormentors. When I left he was still standing his ground.


There was no sign of the Little Owls on a chilly, drizzly day.

This is the tall isolated lime tree on Buck Hill, east of the Henry Moore sculpture. It is where the Mistle Thrushes like to perch when they are not feeding on the grass or in the rowan tree.


The bird at the top left looks smaller, and seems to have a plain grey head, so it might be a Fieldfare. Or it might not. I didn't realise that it seemed different at the time, or I would have taken a more zoomed-in shot. If it is a Fieldfare, it's the first one I've seen in the park this winter.

The two Coal Tits in the leaf yard are now coming out regularly to be fed off the fence. They are getting bolder, and one nearly came to my hand. I think it will soon take the plunge, following the example of the fearless larger tits.


A Cormorant was hauling perch out of the baskets near the bridge at the rate of at least one a minute.


At the far end of the Serpentine a Great Crested Grebe had also caught a perch, about the largest size that it could swallow.


Over the Serpentine, against a slate-grey sky, a Common Gull was chasing another that was carrying a bit of food.


The idea is to harass it into dropping the food, which the pursuing gull will catch in mid-air.

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