Tuesday 15 May 2018

A Blue Tit enjoyed a bath in the little pool at the top of the waterfall in the Dell.


The male Little Owl was at the top of the chestnut tree near the leaf yard.


The Grey Heron in the lower nest on the island was sunbathing in that odd heron posture with wings half spread.


The sound of a young heron begging could be heard from the upper nest.

The Great Crested Grebe family were at the island. I could only see two chicks.


The Coot nest at the outflow of the Serpentine has a loose egg at the edge. This happens so often at Coot nests that I think it must be deliberate -- the Coot listens for signs of life and throws out any silent eggs.


A couple in a pedalo were so intent on their mobile phones that they didn't notice they were taking a Herring Gull for a ride.


The female Mute Swan on the Long Water was on the little island with her five cygnets -- or rather, in the pool left by the swans tearing up the island, of which only a third now remains.


She brought them to Peter Pan to be fed. She knows from several years' experience that humans find fluffy cygnets irresistible.


The Canada Geese still have their 15 goslings.


The Coot family were under the parapet of the Italian Garden. A large carp swam under them.


I went to Regent's Park with Tom. A lot of breeding was going on, far more than in Hyde Park.

There was a large family of Egyptian Geese ...


... and another of Greylags.


The profusion of daisies is probably due to the grass being cropped by geese, so that it never needs to be mown.

A Mandarin had ten ducklings, here seen on the open lake slightly masked by reeds.


Somehow they got through the wire mesh barrier that is meant to confine the wildfowl collection. The mother busily cleared another duck out of the way. Then, for some reason, they all charged off into the distance.


There was a Mallard family in the same place.


Three pairs of Great Crested Grebes had only four chicks between them. Probably the lake here has the same problem with a lack of small fish early in the year. But the chicks were getting fed.


This is a Common Malachite Beetle (Malachius bipustulatus).

4 comments:

  1. That picture of the Gull coolly surveying a pair of humans unable to pay crucial attention to their surroundings shows everything that is wrong with today's world. It's a splendid illustration, and all the more worrisome for it.

    In happier news, that mother Swan knows too well that her babies are irrisistible. Resistance is futile against death by cuteness.

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    1. The gull knew they didn't notice it -- birds are very aware of human attention. I think it was surveying the inside of the boat for sandwiches that could be grabbed.

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  2. Oh no! I followed your instructions and I am pretty sure I found the owl tree you were talking about yesterday evening but I couldn't find the owl! Im still fairly new at this so I may just not have spotted him. Ill be trying again tonight, thanks for your help.

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    1. He's not always visible. You just have to keep trying.

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