Tuesday 25 July 2017

The four Mute Swan cygnets often left alone by their parents at the west end of the Serpentine have been having a tough time. The local dominant male chased two of them down the lake, humiliating them in front of an audience of Coots.


On the other side of the lake, the Black Swan had just been chased off by the same male, and was working off his exasperation on another of the cygnets.


That done, he went to try and catch some bread that was being thrown.


A Carrion Crow collected two pieces of naan bread, tastier than the usual feeble stuff.


Three pairs of Great Crested Grebes clashed over territory at the Serpentine island. The pair with the chicks in the foreground are the one who nested behind the boat. The pair on the right have taken over the nest and are reusing it. The pair in the background are trying to make a nest on shore side of the island -- see yesterday's blog post. This video is not good, as I had to keep zooming in and out to try to catch what was going on.


The Coot nesting near the bridge is even more obsessional about nest building than most Coots. In this video she gets carried away by a bunch of leaves, ignoring her chick.


A pair of Moorhens had two new chicks at Peter Pan.


The Mallard near the bridge was sheltering her four ducklings under her wings.


Later she had a preen and let them run around. She has done remarkably well to keep four alive for so long. They spend much of their time sheltering under the bridge.


The Grey Wagtail was at the Lido restaurant again, running along the edge of the water.


A family of Long-Tailed Tits passing through the bushes near the Henry Moore sculpture were accompanied by another family, Blue Tits with two young. Here is one of them ...


... and here are two young Long-Tailed Tits looking out from the top of a branch.


The female Little Owl perched in front of her nest hole.


Some Spanish-speaking visitors felt a dance coming on in the Italian Garden. You can occasionally hear the man singing over the noise of the fountains.

6 comments:

  1. It looks like they are rehearsing for something (I recognize the song), but I assure you people here don't usually burst into dancing fits in public parks! They look like they are having a grand time though.

    The attentive Coot audience detail is priceless. Great picture!

    We saw five Black Swans this weekend in the main park at Gijón, all part of the samel family. They mixed and mingled with the Mute Swans without trouble. I was very sad to see that they were pinioned though. For a moment or two one of them looked like it wanted to preen its missing pinion. Very, very sad.

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  2. Yes, I avoid going to Regent's Park and St James's Park wherever possible to avoid seeing the captive collection of pinioned waterfowl.

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  3. The song is called 'Uptown Funk' lol

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    Replies
    1. Amazed that either of you could hear that above the noise of the fountains.

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  4. Could you tell me where to find the Little Owls?

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    1. Stand at grid reference 'TQ266803' (use Streetmap to see this on map of park) looking West to view old chestnut tree

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