Saturday 14 July 2018

The Mallard family with two blond ducklings was under the trees at the island.


But by the time I had got round to the other side of the lake they had moved over to a place near the bridge, a dangerous journey over 300 yards of open water with Herring Gulls circling overhead. It's not clear why their mother is so restless.


The white Mallard who may be the father of the brood was up the other end of the lake with his male companion.


The Mallard drakes are going into eclipse, but in the case of the white Mallard you can't tell, because his eclipse plumage is no different. However, when he gets a new set of feathers they are cream coloured, fading to white in a couple of months.

The Tufted Duck family was east of the Lido as usual, with the six ducklings obediently following their mother.


This is one of the ducklings, beaded with water from its last dive.


But there was no sign of the other family anywhere.

One of the three Greylag goslings being brought up by Canada Geese flapped its almost completely developed wings. A bit of preening will be needed to rub the wrappings off the new flight feathers and make them ready for a first attempt to take off.


This pale Greylag is often seen at the Lido restaurant.


Oddly, the other blond greylag, which is paler than this one and quite conspicuous, is seldom seen. Nor is the Bar-Headed Goose. They have to be here because they are moulting and still flightless, but they have found some secluded place where they are unobserved.

The Great Crested Grebes at the bridge were tending their three chicks. One chick got a fish, another got a feather to help its digestion.


The family on the Long Water could be seen on the east side.


But nothing seems to be happening in the nest in the fallen poplar at the Vista, although it's been there since the beginning of June.


A pair of Coots have started building a nest in a small clump of reeds in one of the Italian Garden fountains.


It seems that the new strong fences around the clumps of plants have kept them from nesting there, although the Moorhens, which can climb much better, find the fences no obstacle at all. I saw one going into one of the enclosures, and I think they are nesting again.

The occupants of the Coot nest under the willow near the bridge had to leave when a Grey Heron decided that this was a good place to fish.


A family of Long-Tailed Tits whizzed through a hawthorn tree at the foot of Buck Hill.


The male Little Owl at the leaf yard was in his usual chestnut tree again. The female hasn't appeared for some time.


A Brown Hawker dragonfly hunted under the parapet of the Italian Garden. It only stayed a few minutes, not long enough for me to get a better picture. Photographing dragonflies in flight is a chancy business and you have to take a lot of pictures, hoping that one of them will be good.

5 comments:

  1. I forgot to ask yesterday if the blond ducklings will grow up to be fully white like their father?

    Bad news about the second Tufted family, I fear. Thank Goodness the first one with the six ducklings and their very level-headed mother is doing well.

    Some time ago a British bird watcher I met in the field told me that come summer (I imagine on account of birds' falling silent) many bird watchers and photographers in Great Britain would transfer some of their attention from birds to insects, mainly dragonflies and butterflies, and come fully back to birds in September. Is that true? Unfortunately for me, lately I only get cicadas.

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    1. If the blond ducklings survive ...
      If they are female, they will probably have normal markings but in a creamy beige rather than brown.
      If they are male, they will have pale beige backs and brown, non-iridescent heads.
      Examples of both have often been seen on the lake.

      Yes, this is a rather unrewarding time for photographs. One can only go so far on young water birds, charming as they are. Songbirds are quiet and hidden in the leaves, and there are few opportunities for pictures.

      But there are lots of beautiful insects. I'm running more pictures of them, and I can understand why others would want to do that. Even that temple of pure birdery the London Bird Club Wiki has a lot of reports of butterflies and dragonflies.

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    2. Oh, I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining. I enjoy insect pictures so much, mainly because of the dazzling array of colours. Over here people usually turn to bats and lizards (in our case, for the most part lizards, which we like a lot).

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    3. No, I didn't think you were complaining. Incidentally, there's a remarkable lack of reptiles and amphibians in the park. Plenty of bats, but photographing them is beyond me.

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  2. But as photographs go, there are some splendid portraits today, particularly the 2 swimming family groups. And the hawker. I think.

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