tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post5338580114279917238..comments2024-03-27T19:59:10.159+00:00Comments on Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park birds: Ralph Hancockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11686354797977020917noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-23934922944080831952014-05-23T12:14:53.033+01:002014-05-23T12:14:53.033+01:00Egyptian Geese seem to vary. Some are as vague as ...Egyptian Geese seem to vary. Some are as vague as Mallards, some are as vigilant as proper geese. You'd think that the natural selection caused by this would have made them cleverer and cleverer, but evidently not. Reversion to the norm, I suppose.Ralph Hancockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11686354797977020917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-27717625521692941532014-05-23T10:49:14.723+01:002014-05-23T10:49:14.723+01:00Thanks for the analysis! The Amey people told me t...Thanks for the analysis! The Amey people told me that they call it XXX pond weed and they remembered the 2008 incident saying during that incident people put air lines underneath the water. Is it that they have left the air line in the lake and working ever since?<br />I have seen a group of four chicks of Egyptian Duck resting at the lakeside with no parents around. I stood there for about five to ten mins eventually the mother duck came back and alarmed her chicks to swim away from my staring. This intrigues me a lot. Does mother duck normally dump her chicks for a short period?<br />Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-44829875783817192382014-05-22T23:42:25.171+01:002014-05-22T23:42:25.171+01:00I think the Serpentine is in reasonable shape. The...I think the Serpentine is in reasonable shape. There is a certain amount of nitrate and phosphate runoff from the surrounding grass -- which could be reduced if they stopped dumping leafmould on it. The lake gets algae and the hair-like plants whose name I have forgotten because it's shallow, and a few days' sunshine warms it. As for monitoring the water quality, I think this is restricted to occasional panics, for example before the Olympics, when the management suddenly hire quacks such as Plocher and Phoslock to dump magic sludge in it, which is totally ineffective. The things for bubbling air through the water probably reduce the amount of oxygen overall, because they stir up sludge from the bottom. But, as city lakes go, it's not too bad -- far better than the St James's Park lake, for example.Ralph Hancockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11686354797977020917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-16953335452072850192014-05-22T22:26:49.947+01:002014-05-22T22:26:49.947+01:00Hi Ralph,
Do you think it is eutrophication which...Hi Ralph,<br /><br />Do you think it is eutrophication which is happening in the serpentine? And which party is monitoring the quality of the water body of Royal Parks? Eutrophication can directly lead to death of fishes and crayfish.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-68195453316440148432014-05-22T12:25:30.114+01:002014-05-22T12:25:30.114+01:00Thanks. Will look at these.Thanks. Will look at these.Ralph Hancockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11686354797977020917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-86031037998762700792014-05-22T11:15:18.276+01:002014-05-22T11:15:18.276+01:00Also found this interesting article http://www.tan...Also found this interesting article http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00288330.1967.9515196Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02728183021074354997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-55382251053474652062014-05-22T11:10:51.225+01:002014-05-22T11:10:51.225+01:00Never seen or heard of this process before, quite ...Never seen or heard of this process before, quite interesting.... after a bit of Googling I found this site http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/blogs/aquatic-zoology/why-freshwater-crayfish-don-t-need-milk-healthy-bones that would seem to concur Chris Hinton's comments...<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02728183021074354997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-51267313158583483912014-05-21T22:05:59.683+01:002014-05-21T22:05:59.683+01:00Hello Ralph I got a decent shot of a reed warble...Hello Ralph I got a decent shot of a reed warbler at The Lido. <br /><br /> How can I send it to you?<br /><br />John MealyerAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15685964614155593573noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-36598346618332076782014-05-21T21:54:41.042+01:002014-05-21T21:54:41.042+01:00Thank you very much for this fascinating informati...Thank you very much for this fascinating information. What a remarkable process.Ralph Hancockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11686354797977020917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8278510471239667560.post-49258999810385005562014-05-21T18:54:40.704+01:002014-05-21T18:54:40.704+01:00Hi Ralph,
I saw this response to an old question ...Hi Ralph,<br /><br />I saw this response to an old question on a website by someone called ATP-Man, I was wondering if the photo was of the calcium tablets they mention. I also understand that after they have moulted the crayfish will hide and stay still until the shell has hardened some have thought theirs had died not sure if this is what is happening. I guess that they are also more susceptible to the birds while their shell is soft. I am no expert so this is possibly totally wrong just a guess. Keep up the great work with the Blog.<br /><br />"Crayfish contain an exoskeleton which means it needs to get rid of it in order to grow in size. This is called molting. If the food is abundant they will molt several times quite often early in life. The crayfish hides and crawl out of its exoskeleton through a slit along its dorsal surface. It will and wait for a while until the new skeleton hardens. <br />In preparation for molting the crayfish withdraws most of the calcium from its shell, and stores it in two white "tablets"in the sides of its head. Calcium is a major hardener in the crayfish shell, as it is in strong human bones and teeth."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11644768826157022696noreply@blogger.com