Friday 19 October 2018

Both the Peregrines were on the ledge near the top of the Household Cavalry barracks tower.


The female, on the left, looked around restlessly and flew away.


The male left half an hour later and circled high over the Serpentine.


While I was at the far end of the Serpentine, David Element was beside the Long Water, where he got some fine pictures of a Carrion Crow chasing a Sparrowhawk ...


... a Buzzard ...


... and some Great Crested Grebes having a territorial fight.


Carrion Crows were shouting at each other in the top of the swamp cypress near the Italian Garden.


Another appeared on the cornice of the bridge, eating a sardine which it had probably stolen from a Grey Heron being fed by the man who gives them sardines with chopsticks.


I had to lean over the parapet to get the picture and couldn't keep my shadow out of the frame, but the angle of the light shows that when the light shines directly into a crow's eye the picture has 'redeye' just as with a human.

A Jackdaw waited to be fed on a twig in the leaf yard.


A Goldcrest appeared for a moment in the laurel tree at the southwest corner of the leaf yard and I got just one hasty shot.


A tapping noise in a tree near Queen's Gate revealed a Great Spotted Woodpecker.


A Feral Pigeon was delighted to find some chips on a plate at the Dell restaurant.


Rani, who usually looks after the feeders in the Rose Garden, is away for a few weeks, and I am covering for her. I refilled a feeder and within seconds a Blue Tit flew down to it, removed a seed and ate it daintily on a twig.


The same Common Gull as yesterday was preening on a buoy near the Lido. No more have arrived yet.


A Grey Heron waded almost out of its depth in the stream in the Dell.


A Coot washed in the Serpentine.


Every autumn, large white mushrooms about 4 inches across appear on the grass around the Henry Moore sculpture. I can't identify them.


Update: Mario tells me that it's a White Dapperling, Leucoagaricus leucothites.

9 comments:

  1. Did you see an Egyptian goose behaving very strangely in the round pond today? It seemed unable to raise its head?

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    1. I didn't go to the Round Pond today. But I think the hot summer has seen a resurgence of botulism. Clostridium botulinum is always present, and waterfowl are resistance to small amounts of it, but in hot weather it can become seriously destructive.

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  2. Thank you that sounds like the disease it had, very distressing

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  3. The mushroom is Leucoagaricus leucothites, White dapperling,
    Mario

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  4. Good raptor day. Enjoyed the footage of the Peregrines.

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    1. We need all the raptors we can get. There are hordes of pigeons and parakeets, come on and join the feast.

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  5. I love the Crow's redeye. How human-like!

    I wonder what the female Peregrine was so upset about. It appeared to be something flying above her?

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    Replies
    1. She could have seen the Buzzard and the Sparrowhawk crossing her territory, which is very large and includes the whole park.

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