Friday 1 December 2017

One of the Little Grebes on the Long Water was fishing under the willow tree near the bridge.


A Moorhen searched for food among the fallen leaves under the balcony of the Dell restaurant.


A short way off, I thought I saw the pigeon-eating gull with a new victim in the water. But it was a Herring Gull giving a crisp packet a thorough examination to see if there was anything left in it.


A Great Spotted Woodpecker appeared in a tree between the Dell and the Rose Garden, not somewhere I have seen one before.


But they turn up in unexpected places. Abigail sent this picture of one on a feeder outside a back window of her home several hundred yards from the park. This is a female bird -- males have a red patch on the back of their head, as seen in the previous picture.


A Blackbird foraged in a flower bed in the Rose Garden, finding a small larva ...


... and an exceptionally earthy earthworm, which she swallowed without trying to shake the soil off.


Her mate posed idly in the sunshine.


Although Blackbirds are very elegant, their feathers are not shiny, unlike those of Carrion Crows. This one gave me a hard stare, expecting to be given a peanut.


Another perched on an uncomfortable spike on a broken tree stump, and had to get off promptly.


A Jay was also looking expectant, with its crest up.


An unusually bold Wren was hopping around under a tree near the Rose Garden, probably the one I photographed here a few days ago. Normally when you raise the camera they flee into cover.


A Coal Tit in the Dell waited for a turn on the feeder.


The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial basked in the sunshine for several hours.


Sorry, no videos today. I shot a couple of not very interesting ones, but somewhere the memory card fell out of the camera.

4 comments:

  1. Sorry to read that you lost your camera's memory card. Your videos are always so enjoyable.

    Was that Jay alarmed, or simply curious? Whenever I see a bird's crest raised like that I chalk it up to their being scared of something.

    I am amazed by the fortitude of the Blackbird's digestive tract. There's more dirt than meat in that worm!

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    Replies
    1. That's a Jay I know well, who often comes out to be fed. I read the raised crest as assertion and demand.

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  2. Nice Wren picture, I hope you find your memory card!

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