Monday 17 August 2015

There was just one Mistle Thrush in the rowan trees on Buck Hill. It seems that yesterday's large flock was just passing over the park on its way to somewhere else.


 The family of Magpies on Buck Hill were bouncing around in the long grass looking for insects. The young stay with their parents until the following year, when the next brood arrives.


One of the four young Mallards on the Round Pond was stretching a wing, with its new flight feathers emerging from their blue wrappers. They should be taking to the air in a week or so.


A young Cormorant was perched on a post near the Serpentine island. The young birds have smart whitish fronts.


The Great Crested Grebe family were resting in their favourite place at the east end of the island, only a few yards from their nest behind the wire baskets.


The male Little Owl was in his nest tree, inconveniently behind a branch as, as usual, taking no notice of photographers.


A Speckled Wood butterfly was drinking juice from a blackberry.


When it had finished it flew on to a nettle and spread its quietly beautiful wings.


This mushroom on Buck Hill is a Cep, Boletus edulis, the kind you buy dried in packets labelled Funghi porcini.


They are fairly common in the park, but in their main season, a short time from now, they are much sought after so you have to get up very early to find one before the mushroom hunters arrive.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry Ralph, this is not a cep, it is not even a mushroom. It looks like an old discarded dried up tangerine. Mario

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whatever it was, it was attached to the ground. The other side had been partly eaten by slugs, and the inside looked authentically spongy.

      Delete