Thursday 2 November 2017

The morning sunshine brought out both the Little Owls near the leaf yard, the female in the chestnut tree ...


... and the male in the horse chestnut over by the Queen's Temple.


While I was photographing them a Grey Wagtail flew over and unexpectedly perched in the top of a tall tree.


A Coal Tit ate a pine nut on a twig near the bridge.


The remaining fruit in the rowan tree was still attracting Blackbirds ...


... and a Mistle Thrush.


But there is little left and the show will be over in a day or two.

The search for the Firecrest in the nursery produced a distant call, but there was nothing to see.

At the corner of the enclosure, a Carrion Crow was enthusiastically ripping up plastic bags in a waste bin.


The tumbled kerbstones in front of Peter Pan attract plenty of Feral Pigeons for bathing and socialising.


Black-Headed Gulls lined up on the buoys surrounding the Lido swimming area.


Cormorants massed on the posts next to the bridge.


This allowed them to fish over the submerged wire baskets beside the bridge, which are a fish hatchery, so there are plenty of small fish around them. The mesh makes it a bit difficult for the Cormorants to catch fish, but they manage.


The young Great Crested Grebes haven't quite finished pestering their parents for food.


A young Moorhen searched for little edible creatures beside the water plants in the Italian Garden.


The Black Swan is strangely bad at eating out of people's hands, something Mute Swans manage with ease. He tends to bite your fingers by mistake, but not very hard.

9 comments:

  1. On the subject recently raised of pishing out a Firecrest. I once tried pishing at a Yellow-Browed Warbler that many people had observed in the same place over several days. It promptly disappeared with no further reported sightings. I dare not say where and when this was! Jim

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps it thought you were telling it to pish off.

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    2. I tried doing the same to a YBW, hoping to get a response.
      It worked; a Starling replied.

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    3. If you had used a YBW recording you might have got a Starling pretending to be a YBW.

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    4. That's exactly what happened, the Sterling responded with a near perfect YBW imitation.
      The only positive I could take out of is that the Starling must have heard the YBW somewhere!

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  2. Is that your hand, Ralph?
    He really looks as if he is trying hard not to bite. Perhaps he is not used to being handfed yet.

    How dainty does the Coat Tit look!

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    Replies
    1. No, it's the hand of my friend Marie, who is used to suffering in the cause of science.

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  3. Hi Ralph
    I managed to see the Little Owl this afternoon which was a bonus as I could not find it on a longer visit in the morning so many thanks to you and James for the directions.
    Kind regards
    Richard

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    Replies
    1. Very glad you managed to find the Little Owl. She pops in and out of her hole unpredictably, and I found her in the morning but not later.

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