Thursday 30 June 2016

In the oak tree near the Albert Memorial, one of the adult Little Owls was visible.


There was no sign of the owlets, which were probably inside the hole. They are younger than the ones near the leaf yard. One of these could be seen today in the nest tree.


On another branch just below, its father stared at me suspiciously over his shoulder.


The Mistle Thrushes to the east of the Albert Memorial have probably lost one brood to the ever present Magpies, since they were seen gathering worms to feed a new brood. Here is one of them enjoying some early berries.


The teenage Mandarin at the Vista, having known nothing but admiration from humans all its short life, is very tame. Here it is eating peanuts out of Paul's hand.


The Bar-Headed Goose was swimming briskly from the island to the east end of the Serpentine. It came ashore to be given a few bits of biscuit.


But it was outdone in speed by the Black Swan, who raced over to be given his customary biscuit when he saw me on the shore.


The dominant female swan on the Long Water, leading her cygnets around, furiously chased some Greylag Geese away from the Vista. Then she went for the Mallards. This drake lost several feathers when she seized him.


The Coots on the post near Peter Pan were decorating their dangerous nest with a glittering gold snack packet.


The Great Crested Grebe chick came right out out into the middle of the lake. It looked on enviously as its parent caught a large perch to small to feed to the chick, and it the fish itself.


Here are two mystery pictures. The first is some mushrooms growing on a tree root north of the Round Pond. They are shown next to a pound coin to give an idea of their size. I can't find anything like them on any of the identification pages.


Update: Mario tells me that it's a Poplar Fieldcap, Agrocybe cylindracea. It's growing on a long bit of exposed root of uncertain ownership, but not a poplar.

The second are these bones, chewed by foxes, on the west side of the Long Water. They were on the far side of the railings, so I couldn't get close to them. The front one seems to be a femur, and the shaft is about an inch in diameter.


I thought they looked alarmingly like those of a nine-year-old child, and hope to be proved wrong.

8 comments:

  1. Goodness, let's hope no 9 year old's have been missing for a while!
    Another very eventful day at the park today then.
    Have all the swans been this violent at the park for years or has this year been much worse?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Mute Swans have always been violent. Until a few years ago there was just one dominant pair on the whole lake, both Serpentine and Long Water, and any intruders were persecuted until they went back to the neutral area of the Round Pond.

      Delete
  2. Did you used to work in forensics? That is an alarmingly large femur. A biggish dog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I didn't. But it's the length of the bones that worried me here.

      Delete
  3. The mushroom: Poplar Field-cap (Agrocybe cylindracea)
    Mario

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many thanks. The root is definitely not that of a poplar. It is part of a mysterious and rather long exposed root system next to the oak tree where some Egyptians nested, and it is not clear where it leads to but though I think it belongs to an adjoining horse chestnut.

      Delete
    2. The Poplar Field-cap grows on wood at the base of stumps and on old living trunks of broad-leaved trees, especially black poplar but also sycamore, elder, plane, horse chestnut and others. In Japan, it is called Yanagi-matsutake, the Willow mushroom.
      Mario

      Delete
    3. Have just been back and found a black poplar about 40 feet from the clump, so it's possible that this is a very extended poplar root. The nearest tree is an oak.

      Delete