Monday 12 February 2018

Two pairs of Mandarins have come down from the Regent's Canal to the Long Water, though they eluded me today. This striking close-up portrait of a drake was taken yesterday by Tom.


While most of the Shovellers on the Long Water are revolving in the traditional style, a pair have discovered that the air bubbler, put in to oxygenate the water, brings up plenty of tiny creatures for them to eat.


A pair of Gadwalls cruised along the shallow edge of the Serpentine, upending to pick water plants off the bottom.


A pair of Mute Swans charged up the lake side by side.


Another picture by Tom: a pair of Great Crested Grebes displaying on the Long Water. This pair has made a couple of vague tries at making a nest and given up. It takes a long time for them to get serious about nesting, and if they are sensible they will wait till midsummer when there are plenty of small fish to feed their chicks.


A Black-Headed Gull landed neatly on a small stick in the water at Peter Pan, but found it an awkward perch. After trying to get its feet into a more comfortable position it flew off.


A nest hole used by Starlings in one of the plane trees near the small boathouses has been commandeered by a pair of Rose-Ringed Parakeets.


While I was filming some Redwings under a tree on the Parade Ground, a Treecreeper appeared and climbed up the trunk.


There were Mistle Thrushes on the Parade Ground too, but this is one of the permanent residents near the Serpentine Gallery.


This is not a good photograph, but quite interesting: a Goldcrest leaps off a yew twig in the leaf yard.


The same yew tree is the home of one of the Robins who comes to my hand to feed.


A Wren came down to drink in the pool at the top of the Dell waterfall.


The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was enjoying the sunshine.

4 comments:

  1. So many lovely little birds today again! I especially enjoyed the unexpected Treecreeper. The video shows very clearly how it uses its tail to support itself while climbing. It's like a little feathery mouse, of the prettiest sort.

    That picture of the Goldcrest mid-jump is really wonderful! So difficult to capture such a split-second moment with such clarity.

    Let's see if I've managed to learn how to do links:

    A very brave and desperate Gull

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well done with the link. I keep a link in a text file called link.txt and simply slot in the URL and the display text before copying it into a comment.

      What a remarkable picture. I don't know much about American Gulls. The one attacking the eagle is not a California Gull because these have black and white wingtips like our Common Gulls. Nor can I identify the victim.

      Delete
  2. Nice capture of the Treecreeper. When we were in Richmond Park on sunday one flew past us calling at the edge of Pembroke Lodge + was totally unconcerned by us as it explored the crevices of the nearest oak.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes they are so busy they forget about you. I've seen this when they are making a nest.

      Delete