Sunday 17 May 2015

The male Tawny Owl reappeared in the horse chestnut tree next to his nest tree, only to disappear again when harassed by Jays.


The male Little Owl came out several times during the afternoon to sunbathe.


There are three Starling nests in one of the plane trees next to the small boathouses, and I think two in the other. Only one is clearly visible from the ground. No matter how often the parents feed their ravenous youngsters, they never stop crying for more.


A Blackbird near the leaf yard was gathering worms for his own nestlings.


A dozen House Martins were flying around the embassies. I could clearly see three plaster roses on the cornice that had nests on them, but there are probably more. Quite likely some chicks have already hatched, as the adults were constantly flying to and from their nests. Here a bird squeezes into the nest space.


There were some very large carp under the parapet of the Italian Garden. Here a Great Crested Grebe looks at one that is definitely too big for her.


The three Mallard ducklings near the bridge have survived so far. As they grow larger they are in less danger from the Herring Gulls, of which there were at least a hundred on the lake today.


Some oaf had thrown a deckchair into the Serpentine. It was an attractive shade of green, so an Egyptian Goose came over to see if it was edible.

3 comments:

  1. I got up at 5 am yesterday and sat in my upstairs office, and was disturbed by the most almighty racket coming from the garden. I looked up and saw lots of magpies up in the conifer going stir crazy.

    Then I went to the window and looked down. Up in the stag's horn sumach tree was a certain someone eating our fatballs. It was a fox. A great big plush fox. It kept twisting to nibble the fatballs in the feeders and falling out of the tree (elegantly in the circumstances). Eventually it packed up and walked silently away.

    I had NO IDEA foxes could climb trees. Or that they were so partial to RSPB super soft suet balls! No wonder the magpies were hopping mad.

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    1. A few years ago Springwatch, or one of those programmes, left its cameras running overnight and broadcasting. I happened to turn it on, and it showed a badger climbing a tree. It was not very good at it and fell out, but just started climbing again.

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    2. Brilliant thanks Ralph. That's pretty much what the fox did - fall out/climb up again! With style I might add :)

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