Thursday 26 July 2018

Yesterday Virginia found a new family of Tufted Ducks on the Long Water with six ducklings. That made two families on the Long Water and two on the Serpentine.

But today I found a fifth family at the Serpentine island, with eleven tiny ducklings. They're hard to count because they're diving like fury.


Here is a still picture of them all.


It was a very hot day. A Cormorant kept cool by panting and vibrating its throat.


One of the young Grey Herons in the nest on the island was doing the same.


A parent arrived with a fish and dropped it into the nest. The young herons happily ripped it to bits and ate it.


Virginia sent this picture of the parents displaying to each other in the nest.


It was feeding time for the Great Crested Grebe chicks from the fallen poplar on the Long Water.


The male grebe from the island nest kept the chicks in the shade of a pedalo.


On the other side of the lake, a grebe scratched its ear with a big foot.


One of the half-grown chicks from the nest near the bridge was diving by itself, playing at fishing. It won't catch anything yet, but all practice is useful.


The Coot nest between the posts at Peter Pan is now very large, a remarkable construction considering that it is only attached in one place, to the submerged chain. But no matter how big it gets, nothing will come of it, as hungry Herring Gulls wait on the posts.


In the lurid green duckweed of an Italian Garden fountain pool, a Moorhen chick followed an older sibling from a previous brood. The generations get on harmoniously, and sometimes teenagers feed the young chicks.


A male red Crested Pochard ate algae on the Long Water.


The male Little Owl near the leaf yard was skulking in his chestnut tree and hard to see.


Usually Red Admiral butterflies like to bask in the sunlight, but it was too hot for this one at the Italian Garden fountains. It perched in the shade and fanned itself.

5 comments:

  1. Wow, even butterflies are feeling the heat. I'm not sure how well you all are coping with the high temperatures. Most British homes will not be fitted with A/C units, I imagine. It must have been some really dreadful days. I hope it rained today.

    Eleven ducklings and five Tufted families! That is absolutely extraordinary, isn't it? I imagine bird lovers all over London must be trying to find an explanation for the sudden demographic explosion.
    That Coot still haves an expression of smug satisfaction.

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  2. Replies
    1. I'm fine in the heat but everyone else is melting like beeswax candles.

      May have said this before, but I think some established Tufted Duck breeding place has been disturbed by building work, driving the inhabitants out to find nests elsewhere.

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  3. I've noticed quite a few butterflies- especially the whites + browns are seeking shade in my garden.

    Great news about all the tufties- at this rate a plague of them!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, interesting. I'd not noticed butterflies seeking shade before.

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