Thursday 28 September 2017

The Mute Swans on the Round Pond find the water inlet fascinating. They don't just drink the water, they also for some reason like biting the stainless steel nozzle.


On the Serpentine, the Black Swan had been eating algae, but came over quickly for his daily ration of birdseed.


One of the Long Water Great Crested Grebe chicks got a fish.


(Couldn't help being reminded of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, although the painter omits the fish.)

The Grey Heron at the Dell restaurant is gaining confidence. Here it is prowling up the edge of the terrace looking for scraps. Soon it will be leaping on to tables and snatching food of people's plates like its notorious predecessor.


After the recent sudden arrival of a flock of Chiffchaffs, they have spread out over the park. This one was on a hawthorn bush near the Queen's Temple.


Robins are everywhere. This is the bird who owns the olive tree next to the Lido restaurant ...


... and another struck a dramatic pose at the top of a young oak tree near the leaf yard.


Under the tree there was a carpet of sunbathing Feral Pigeons.


The Mistle Thrushes eating fruit in the rowan trees on Buck Hill ...


... were joined by a flock of Starlings ...


... and a couple of Magpies.


The local Blackbirds were under the trees looking for worms. This young male has grown most of his black adult plumage. He won't get a yellow bill till next year.


The Little Owl near the leaf yard was preening and scratching in her usual chestnut tree.


The young people in hi-vis jackets who work with the shire horses on Buck Hill are bankers and other corporate people being given an experience of real work. Here they are arriving, forking hay on to a cart, and going back just two hours later absolutely exhausted.

4 comments:

  1. That real-work-experience-but-not-quite sounds fun. I wish there was something like that at my workplace, for both the teaching staff and the students. The horses are such beauties, too.

    Even at the risk of being pelted with stones, I think I prefer your version of the Creation of Adam!

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    1. The bankers would die if you made them do that in the Spanish summer.

      I suppose that if God were handing Adam a fish it would be The Redemption of Mankind (ΙΧΘΥΣ and all that).

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  2. Like the look on the face of the wagon driver as the bankers are toiling.

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    1. Yes, so did I. Comfortable in his home-made chariot, he watches the feeble creatures toiling.

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