Thursday 11 August 2016

A flock of at least thirty Mistle Thrushes were feeding in the grass on Buck Hill.


But there were none in the rowan trees where they were yesterday. Instead, there was a small party of Blackbirds eating the berries.


A pair of Song Thrushes were hopping around a tree on the west side of the Long Water.


One of the Little Owlets near the Albert Memorial was visible. Over the last few days they have been in a small horse chestnut tree just to the west of the fallen tree trunk which lies 40 yards south of their nest tree. But these preferences seldom last long.


The female Little Owl near the leaf yard was in her nest tree.


The Black Swan's girlfriend (perhaps one should say former girlfriend) was with the adopted cygnet on the edge of the Serpentine. She is still recognisable by the dark specks on top of her head.


I think this was just a coincidence, and they didn't seem to be taking much notice of each other. She had moved away by the time the Black Swan came under the bridge from the Long Water to check that the cygnet was all right.


A Great Crested Grebe cruised quickly past the Vista carrying a fish for the chicks near the bridge.


A sunny spell brought the terrapins out to bask on the fallen horse chestnut tree in the Long Water.


There is a remarkable number of small perch in the Italian Garden ponds.


Also in the Italian Garden, a dark brown hairy caterpillar walked across the balustrade. I suppose it's some kind of arctiid moth, but can't begin to guess which one.


There was a Common Blue butterfly in the ragwort patch on the far side of Buck Hill, to the east of the West Carriage Drive that divides Hyde Park from Kensington Gardens. It perched on a bit of thistledown, scarcely disturbing the fluff.


There is a splendid video of young Carrion Crows pestering a parent on Africa Gómez' blog The Rattling Crow.

7 comments:

  1. One of the chaps at RSPB Wat Tyler Park told me about your blog and it was well worth a look! Thank you! My girlfriend and I upload wildlife pictures (mainly) from around Leigh on Sea on our site www.rjnature.com . I notice you are a fellow Pentax user- I use the K5 and a K20D. How good is the K1 and the 450 lens that you use? Is it a big step up from the K3? Thanks for writing this blog- a great insight to the wildlife in London :-)

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    1. Sorry, I should have answered your comment earlier, but somehow overlooked it. I would rate the K-1 and the 150-450mm DFA lens as an excellent combination, absolutely sharp right to the end of the zoom, and a lot less heavy than an equivalent full-frame setup in Nikon or Pentax. The K-1 seems to produce slightly brighter pictures than the K-3 and also, of course, has a wider angle of view so you don't have to run quite so far away when taking shots of nearby subjects. When taking distant shots where you crop the picture to get down to the subject, its resolution in pixels is exactly the same as that of the K-3, you just get more round the edges of the picture. By the way, the F in DFA stands for Full frame. If you use the K-1 with any of the old series of DA lenses, the picture will be cropped and you won't have the advantage of a full-frame camera.

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  2. I fear I may have to disappoint you with regards to the sex of the black swan. Pictures available if you require. Kind regards, andrew

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    1. I've seen the Black Swan trying to mount his girlfriend (to use the currently accepted pronouns). Wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear that an attempt had been made in the opposite direction. He's only in his second year, inexperienced and confused. What did you see?

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    2. I've seen the Black Swan trying to mount his girlfriend (to use the currently accepted pronouns). Wouldn't be a bit surprised to hear that an attempt had been made in the opposite direction. He's only in his second year, inexperienced and confused. What did you see?

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    3. I have seen full mating twice in a very short space of time. "He" was on both occasions being "her". I also have shots of tenderness après. Send you email address if you are interested in seeing the images I have.

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    4. Thanks for the information. Will keep a close eye on this.

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