Friday 22 December 2017

A Wren ran up a tree trunk with an agility that would not have disgraced a Treecreeper.


The indefatigable Rani was refilling the feeders on the Harlequin Glorybower bush in the Rose Garden, and the Robin who owns the bush was on a rose stem waiting for her to finish.


A Goldcrest looked out of a tree near the Henry Moore sculpture.


Just up the hill, the female Little Owl was asleep, taking no notice of events below.


The female at the Albert Memorial was also dozing in her hole. See how much bigger she is than her mate, shown in the same hole in yesterday's blog post.


When I came by later she had woken up and come out on to a branch.


She started preening and I got a few seconds of very shaky video -- this was shot handheld at an enormous zoom, pointing the camera up at an uncomfortable angle.


A Jackdaw posed on a mossy urn in the Italian Garden.


The two Grey Heron nests on the island had single birds in them. Their mates were both on top of the birch trees glaring at each other because they were too close.


One of the good things about being a heron is that you can stand on a branch two feet above the water and still be able to lean down to take a drink.


The pair of Egyptian Geese in the Rose Garden had just chased out a rival pair, and were strutting around looking pleased with themselves.


A Great Crested Grebe was doing absolutely nothing. They are very good at this.

8 comments:

  1. just to let you know, the video showed like this:
    https://youtu.be/Pr7PBmXUqUM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, I was in a hurry and forgot to embed it. But if I do forget, you can always follow up the link by pasting it into your browser. Anyway, it's fixed now.

      Delete
    2. just thought to let you know

      Delete
  2. Lovely film of the owl, by the way, with a background soundtrack of church bells & shrieking parakeets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The bells are the ones in the campanile of Imperial College. There are ten of them, two more than usual, and the challenge of dealing with these makes them popular with visiting bellringers.

      Delete
  3. I don't think I've ever seen a Wren impersonating a Treecreeper before!

    I too loved the bells in the Little Owl video. I hope I'll be able to spend some part of the holidays mimicking that wonderful picture of the Great Crested Grebe: doze on and off and do nothing. # Lifegoals

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've quite often seen Wrens running up tree trunks. But, just like Treecreepers, usually as soon as they see you they go round to the back of the tree.

      Delete