Thursday 28 July 2016

The Reed Warbler families are frantically busy. One of the parents near the bridge was dashing around in the bushes next to the steps ...


... and in the oak tree above the reed bed.


Next to the Lido restaurant, another was in an olive tree, along with several youngsters calling to be fed.


The two Great Crested Grebe families on the Long Water were also very active. Both are still at the stage where one parent guards the young while the other goes off to get fish for them.


The parents change roles every few minutes. If one catches a fish too large for the chicks, it eats it at once and carries on hunting.

The teenage grebe at the island was fishing for itself. It caught three in five minutes.


A Greylag Goose was carefully preening its newly regrown wing feathers.


But the Black Swan and his adopted Mute cygnet were doing absolutely nothing, on the shore near the bridge.


The Coot family at Bluebird boats were interested in an outboard motor.


But a Starling preferred the clock at the Lido restaurant.


There was no sign of the Little Owls in the chestnut tree near the leaf yard. They were clearly not at home, as a Stock Dove was insolently squatting in their nest hole.


They may already have kicked out their owlets to fend for themselves. Little Owls grow up quickly.

I also drew a blank at the oak trees near the Albert Memorial. But there was a distant view of an owlet  high in one of the lime trees near the Henry Moore sculpture.


The patch of wildflowers behind the Lido is at its brightest, and is attracting many bees. Here is a honeybee on a cornflower.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, an engineering Coot! Or a Coot Engineer!

    What did I miss while I was away?

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    Replies
    1. The main event has been the midsummer broods of Great Crested Grebe chicks. We can expect two more with luck.

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