Friday 9 March 2018

A Carrion Crow was flying around with its mate, holding a twig -- an invitation to nest. They hadn't chosen a tree yet.


Two Goldfinches feeding on the Parade Ground were momentarily interrupted by a Redwing.


The shy Redwings feel safe from people separated from them by a fence, and stare curiously at you.


There was also a pair of Mistle Thrushes, equally interested.


Filling the seed feeder in the Rose Garden attracted a male Chaffinch ...


... and one of the usual pair of Dunnocks.


The Robin who owns the bush looked proudly around.


A Wren perched on the arm of a bench.


A small flock of Long-Tailed Tits flew down the side of the Long Water.


Another in the Dell first tried a feeder full of mealworms, but found them too long to swallow and moved over to the peanut feeder. You wouldn't think that its little beak would be up to pecking bits out of peanuts, but it was doing perfectly well.


There was a pair of Stock Doves in the Little Owls' oak tree near the Albert Memorial, but the owls stayed inside their nest hole.


However, the female owl near the Henry Moore sculpture was out on her balcony.


This pair of grebes have tried year after year to make a nest on the rafts at the east end of the Serpentine, and have never succeeded. They could nest perfectly well in the nearby reed bed, but the idea hasn't occurred to them.


A Moorhen ventured incautiously close to the nesting Mute Swan on the little island in the Long Water, but she was dozing and didn't wake up.


There are Gadwalls all over the lake now. This is one pair of three that were cruising around the north end of the Long Water. You can hear the fountains of the Italian Garden nearby.


A pair of Mallards rested on the willow tree next to the bridge.


A squirrel ate leaf buds off a twig.

2 comments:

  1. Am I the only person in the world who dislikes squirrels?

    Great to see that the Long-tailed Tits appear to have survived the Beast from the East. Regarding their tiny but strong beaks, their similarly tiny American cousins, the Black-capped Chickadees (how I wish I could see one!!)can pierce the bark of trees, like tiny woodpeckers.

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    1. I don't like grey squirrels much. I'm old enough to remember the red squirrels they wiped out. I used that picture because it seemed interesting, not as a sign of approval. They make a terrible mess of budding trees, as do those other invaders, the parakeets.

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