Monday 14 August 2017

The Moorhens at the Serpentine bridge still have five of their original six chicks. They have done much better than the Coots from the nest in the same place, who have lost all the chicks from two broods.


The Black Swan was nearby, on his own. The Mute Swan who is the mother of the four cygnets had taken them up the lake. She has not been attacking him when he hangs around her family, but she may consider him a bad influence.


Some swans flew to the other end of the lake and descended elegantly on the water.


One of the young Greylag Geese sprawled on the shore, preening its wing.


A Cormorant caught several carp in front of the place where the fishermen usually sit, catching nothing.


A Great Crested Grebe was pursued by a chick under the Serpentine bridge. The other parent is sitting on a new clutch of eggs on the far side of the bridge.


A Starling was foraging up the shore, looking very fine in the sunshine.


The female Little Owl at the leaf yard was in the same place as yesterday. She seems to have abandoned what used to be her usual branch, perhaps not surprisingly as there were a lot of Magpies around.


A family of Long-Tailed Tits passed through the trees near the Albert Memorial.


In the Rose Garden, a Great Tit, a Coal Tit and a juvenile Robin took turns at a feeder while a Dunnock on the ground underneath picked up the spillage. This feeder is not operated by the park. A kind woman set it up and fills it regularly.


A Honeybee and a Comma butterfly enjoyed the flowers and the sunshine.


An Emperor dragonfly was hunting at the east end of the Serpentine.


A mess of ripped-off oak leaves and acorns on the path near the Henry Moore statue showed that the squirrels were eating young acorns in their usual destructive manner.


Both Grey Squirrels and Rose-Ringed Parakeets seem unable to feed in a tree without vandalising it.

4 comments:

  1. LOVE the colours in the Starling's plumage in the sunshine...looking VERY fine indeed!!!




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    1. Starlings get a bad press, but are amazingly shiny in their iridescent brocade plumage. To get the best photograph, you need direct bright sunlight shining over your shoulder so that your shadow almost but not quite falls on the bird.

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  2. I think I'd like very much to read the story about you and the Little Owl, Ralph, if you wrote it. From what little experience I have with Little Owls, it is very rare that one of those shy birds should show so much ease when a human being is around.

    Do you know the kindly woman who fills the feeder? If you do, please thank her for us.

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    1. The male Little Owl of this pair was the bird I photographed for the first post of my blog on 6 April 2012. So it's a long acquaintance. You can't make friends with a Little Owl (except by bringing it up as a pet, but that's another story). But at least the pair recognise me and are not frightened.

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