Thursday 16 June 2016

A Common Buzzard circled high over the leaf yard.


 All the Little Owls were visible in the two chestnut trees. Here is one of the owlets ...


... and here is the female watching them from the other tree.


The owlets were very restless and kept rushing around in the tree. Their parents have already been calling to them from the maple tree to come over, and in a day or to they will take the plunge.

Two Jackdaws were very interested in something inside a dead tree on the north side of the leafy yard. Then they were knocked off by two other Jackdaws, which also peered into the tree. Probably a small bird is nesting inside, and they are considering a raid on the nest.


The indefatigable pair of Coots that nest on the platform in one of the small boathouses are at it again. They always lose all their chicks because these fall off the platform into the water and can't get back. Unable to learn from this experience, they try the same thing again.


There is a new family of Greylags on the Long Water with four goslings. They were on the gravel bank, and this picture was taken across the lake.


This seems to be a new family too. They were at the Serpentine island. At first I thought it was the family of four that had come across the lake from their usual place, but these goslings look smaller than theirs.


In the usual place near the Lido, the Greylag with nine goslings was sheltering them under her wings. She stood up, revealing that all of them were alive and well.


The strange combined Canada Goose family was on the grass bank at the back of the Lido swimming area. There are three different sizes of gosling. Jorgen believes that some of them are Greylags, as a result of eggs being laid in the wrong nest.


Usually there is another pair of Canadas near this family, but it is not clear whether they are the parents of some of the goslings.

The young Starling at the Dell restaurant couldn't find any leftover food on the tables, and was poking for insects under the kerb of the terrace.


The young Magpies are growing up fast, Their originally blue eyes have turned dark brown, and only shorter tails and a slightly fluffy look distinguish them from adults.


This Common Blue damselfly was in a patch of long grass near the Round Pond.


The body plan is modified from the original dragonfly one by backwards tilting of the bar of eight hinges that work its wings. This allows the wings to be folded along its abdomen. Dragonflies can't fold their wings.

2 comments:

  1. Very beautiful picture of the young magpie! You can see the light of intelligence glinting in its eyes.

    I wonder whether being indefatigable is a side effect of not being too bright, at least as far as Coots are concerned ...

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  2. Yes, I'm afraid that Coots are uncommonly dim. But by sheer persistence they have managed to get their population up to 140 in the park. Maybe intelligence is overrated.

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