Monday 25 July 2016

The Black Swan, cruising on the Long Water, saw 'his' cygnet on the far side with some other Mute Swans and charged over, displaying a magnificent expanse of ruffles.


He chased off the swans, collected the cygnet, and led it back under the bridge. They sat side by side on the shore.


These are the three Greylag goslings that have been adopted by the Canada pair, with the teenage Canada that is part of the family. One of them definitely has a darker bill and legs than the other two. However, it shows no other sign of being a hybrid, and it's probably just natural variation.


The interestingly coloured hybrid goose hangs out with the Canadas. Since goslings 'imprint' on their mother, this probably means that its mother was a Canada and its father a Greylag. The other way round is more usual.


Three teenage Mallards appeared at the Vista. You can see that their wings are still shorter than those of adult ducks. I haven't seen them before, and think they must have flown in.


There is also a teenage Greylag Goose on the Serpentine which was definitely not hatched on the lake, and must have flown in too.

Blondie's three young are now teenagers too, but are still staying together in a companionable huddle.


The young Great Crested Grebe was resting in front of the island.


I haven't seen its parents recently. Could they be nesting again in the same place on the island? The bushes have now grown so much that it's impossible to see.

Even patient Grey Herons get bored. This one, waiting for a fish under the balustrade of the Italian Garden, yawned and then flew away.


A young Pied Wagtail hunting along the edge of the Round Pond caught an insect.


One of the Little owlets from the nest near the Albert Memorial stared at me narrowly from an oak tree.


A Comma butterfly perched on a leaf near the Long Water.


Breaking the regulations on a gigantic scale: this huge model swimmer is an unwelcome reminder that the park is going to be messed up for weeks by the annual triathlon.

12 comments:

  1. What a stunning photo of Black Swan frills! And a lovely grebelet closeup too. A treat.

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  2. I worry that the Young Mute Swan is not being shown, by the Black Swan, how to find and feed on their natural food as it does not look robust to me. I have never seen the Black Swan feeding so cannot be sure.

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    1. I don't think swans train their young to find food. At most they go to where the food is and the young follow them. The swans on the lake are over-dependent on rubbish offered by humans, but they seem to thrive on it. I'm really not worried on this count.

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  3. Where has respect for the wildlife and overall nature gone?
    I always think Britain is perfect for this kind of thing and orders are orders but clearly not!

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    1. The management of the park has deteriorated sharply in the past decade. Skilled gardeners have retired and not been replaced, especially in Hyde Park, which is maintained (sort of) by ignorant contract labour taking orders from executives who never venture out of their offices. Some of the old guard survive in Kensington Gardens, but for how long? All in all, the administration is a combination of meanness and waste, sustained by turning the place into a venue for commercial events. It's a microcosm of the modern economy, not only in Britain but worldwide.

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  4. Ditto Ralph, pure greed.

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    1. Depressing but probably true I feel!

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    2. There will be no triathlon in Hyde Park this year. According to the governing body of the sport the British leg will be in Leeds and .. "The event will take the place of the event in London, as Hyde Park will be under construction in 2016 to allow for the building of a cycling superhighway throughout the city."

      And it will be in Leeds next year as well. I think we may have seen the end of HP Triathlons. The inflatable swimmer in the lake at the moment is to mark the Rio Olympics. No, I can't fathom it either.

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    3. Excellent news for us, but I am sorry for what Leeds, a pleasant city, will have to endure. The inflatable swimmer has gone now. Must have been for a photo shoot. Incidentally, it was looking a bit tatty and patched, rather like the Pink Floyd pig, which I am told still exists but is too leaky to fly again.

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    4. However ..

      http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/6000-swimmers-to-take-the-plunge-in-serpentin

      Still, it wll be less disruptive than the triathlons.

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    5. 6000? Sounds disastrously disruptive. A pox on them all.

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