Sunday 6 August 2017

The Black Swan was on the Serpentine, looking up the side of the landing stage near the Diana fountain where there was a female Mute Swan with cygnets.


He came in close, penning her into a confined space beside the landing stage. Any nearer, and there would be a fight. Was he teasing her? Was he interested in the cygnets?


The strange pale goose which is probably a Canada--Greylag hybrid has a Canada mate. This means that it identifies itself as a Canada, and therefore probably had a Canada mother.


There is another hybrid--purebred pair on the lake, though I haven't seen them for a while. In this case the mate is a Greylag.

The teenage Great Crested Grebe from the island, not seen for some time, was fishing east of the Lido.


The grebes nesting on the Long Water near the bridge are still feeding their two chicks, although they have started a new nest. They had come under the bridge on to the Serpentine, causing a territorial standoff with the island pair.


A Coot at Peter Pan was carrying a leafy twig to a nest under a bush beside the waterfront. The nest has been in existence since the early spring, but doesn't seem to have produced any chicks.


This is the pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull on the Long Water, being shadowed by the young gull which is almost certainly his offspring. His mate is perched nearby on a post.


The two young Magpies near the bridge are inseparable. They were in a whitebeam tree with a hawthorn next to it, with the branches intertwined. Both species have ripening berries.


A Starling was shining on the fence of the Lido restaurant in a sunny spell.


In the Rose Garden, the usual Dunnock ...


... and young Robin made an appearance.


The female Little Owl near the leaf yard was in her usual tree, but hard to see clearly.


This hoverfly near the bridge is, I think, Myathropa florea.


It has no English name, but a picturesque German one, Totenkopfschwebfliege, 'death's head hoverfly', because of the marking on its thorax.

2 comments:

  1. Agree, the hoverfly is Myathropa florea. Seeing quite a few of these over the last 2 weeks. The ones in my garden love the fennel + while we were at Bookham Common today they were partial to the angelica flowers.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks -- I get identifications wrong too often. Both fennel and angelica belong to the Apiaceae (which used to be called Umbelliferae) and have that distinctive aniseed smell.

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