Sunday 2 December 2018

A Cormorant at the bridge tried to scare another one off a post ...


... but the occupant was clearly senior and wouldn't budge ...


... so the challenger backed off, climbed on to the chain ...


... and jumped on to the next post.


The family of Moorhens at Peter Pan preened together amicably on a fallen branch.


The carpet of fallen leaves on the bottom of the Serpentine above the weir seems to be full of small edible creatures, with both Coots and Mute Swans poking around in it.


The Black Swan, at the Vista as usual, was again shadowed by a Coot which followed it everywhere.


The pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull looked around for his next meal. The circle of black dots on his fierce yellow eye makes him easy to spot with certainty.


I photographed this Common Gull because it has unusually deep yellow feet. But it's noticeable how its dark eye gives it a much milder expression than the Lesser Black-Back. This is an illusion, of course -- gulls are out for what they can get.


The young Grey Heron in the Dell waded around in the upper reaches of the little stream.


There was a Peregrine on the barracks tower again.


The resident pair of Mistle Thrushes in the Rose Garden took the opportunity of a drizzly day to hunt for worms on the lawn.


A Mistle Thrush in the ash tree at the top of Buck Hill rattled furiously ...


... at a Jay in the adjacent rowan. There is hardly any fruit left here, but the Jay was hoping for a peanut, which of course it got.

4 comments:

  1. The Coot looks besotted. Yeah, the Black Swan would have that effect.

    Great action shots of the Cormorant duel! It always astounds me that they'd prefer to knock a comrade off its perch when there is a perfectly serviceable perch nearby.

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    1. It's a hierarchical thing. Gulls do it all the time. Yesterday I saw a Common Gull fly down a line of posts occupied by smaller Black-Headed Gulls which would have been easy to displace, until it came to another Common Gull which it chose to knock off.

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  2. Aesthetically pleasing image of the Heron along a scenic stream.

    Also liked the behaviour shots of the Cormorants.

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    Replies
    1. The Dell is a very artfully created little landscape. That view from the fence at the bottom stops tourists in their tracks and they reach for their cameras.

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