Friday, 21 March 2025

A few more Redwings

There were a dozen Redwings hunting in the grass near the Physical Energy statue ...


... and several more  between the Dell and the Rose Garden ...


... but none on the Parade Ground, though the Fieldfare was there as usual. It insists on staying more than a hundred yards for the fence, so you can never get a good picture.


A Song Thrush perched in a tree near the Speke obelisk.


A Greenfinch in a treetop by the Long Water wheezed and twittered against a background of a Wren and Robin singing, a Coot calling and, at 30 seconds, the explosive song of a Cetti's Warbler invisible in the bushes.


You're never out of earshot of a Robin anywhere in the park. This one was near the leaf yard ...


... and another was singing in a bush in the Rose Garden.


A Long-Tailed Tit arrived with a feather to line its nest ...


... and a Blue Tit looked down from the Wedge-Leaf Wattle by the Serpentine Road.


Great Tits waited in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Dell.


The female Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage may be planning to nest in this lime tree, which has several suitable holes.


The male at the Round Pond came out in the afternoon.


The young Grey Heron in the Dell was reflected in the stream.


A Cormorant caught a perch under the edge of the Italian Garden.


A Coot brought an iris leaf to its mate nesting in a fountain pool. For some reason it jumped over one of the nets and dived under an identical one. But you don't ask Coots why they do things.


There are now several eggs in the nest.


A male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee browsed on a wallflower in the Rose Garden.

Thursday, 20 March 2025

Three young herons in the top nest

The Grey Herons in the top nest on the island have three chicks, not two as I thought when they first came into view yesterday.


The three young herons from the nest at the east end of the island are now regularly climbing out, and one was on the adjoining nest.


The heron at the southwest corner of the bridge was hanging around in a tree by the path, waiting for someone to come and feed it. It doesnn't seem to have a mate, though I have seen a pair here make a brief and unsuccessful attempt at nesting.


The nearby weeping willow, which collapsed into the lake several years ago, is a favourite hangout for ducks of all kinds. Here a female Tufted Duck and Pochard preen on a partly submerged branch.


The Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine are still hanging on to their two goslings.


The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was well camouflaged against the trunk of a horse chestnut tree.


Ahmet Amerikali shot this remarkable close-up video of a Wren singing. Usually they are very shy and unapproachable.


A Song Thrush was in good voice near the Serpentine Gallery. It's been a very good year for them, and for the first time they are the most numerous thrush in the park.


A pair is nesting near the southwest corner of the bridge, and Ahmet got a shot of one arriving with nesting material.


There is also a pair of Greenfinches here. This is the female.


One of the Long-Tailed Tits in the Rose Garden paused for a moment on a broken twig before dashing into the bush where they are nesting.


Blue Tits are nesting in a hole in a tree near the Buck Hill shelter.


The Robins at Mount Gate were hopping around in the bushes, and I think I saw the male feeding his mate, a prelude to nesting.


The long staying Fieldfare is still on the Parade Ground ...


... accompanied by three Redwings.


A Stock Dove wandered around on the path by my feet. Usually you see them in trees and they are much shyer than Feral Pigeons.


A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on a hyacinth in a Rose Garden border ...


... and a male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee was also at work.

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

The Hyde Park Little Owl, and more Grey Heron chicks

There was a good view of the female of the pair of Little Owls near the Ranger's Cottage. She is probably the grandaughter of the first pair of Little Owls to arrive in the park in December 2011.


She enjoyed a leisurely preen.


A Chiffchaff flitted about in the same tree.


A Blue Tit pecked delicately at a pine nut in a hawthorn tree in the Rose Garden.


A Long-Tailed Tit passed through the tree, but they are not interested in being fed by humans (with the notable exception of one in St James's Park which comes to Mark Williams's hand for bits of suet).


A pair of Coal Tits appeared in a small cedar on the lawn between the Rose Garden and the Dell. They may be the ones normally seen inside the Dell.


The male Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens accosted me as I was gtoing to the Round Pond ...


... and his mate turned up on the way back.


The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge was waiting on the railings.


Ahmet Amerikali got a fine shot of a Wren at the other end of the bridge.


A Starling preening on an umbrella at the Lido restaurant was knocked off its perch by another, but carried on.


I was fairly sure that a third brood of Grey Heron chicks had hatched in the highest of the nests on the island, and today brought the first sound and a rather obstructed sight of them. One chick is easy to see in this video, and the other is intermittently visible  below and  to the right of its parent.


The three young herons in the east nest are beginning to look slightly more grown up.


Another picture by Ahmet: a Great Crested Grebe catching a perch under the parapet of the Italian Garden.


The dominant pair of Mute Swans on the Long Water were settling down on the artificial nesting island. This involves restlessly tearing up all the plants.


The Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine are still holding on to their last two chicks. A pair of Gadwalls cruised by harmlessly.


The male Egyptian under the Henry Moore sculpture was alone again. It looks as if his mate is having another try at nesting after her recent failure.


A female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee browsed on spring crocuses near the Physical Energy statue.

Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Egyptians holding steady

The Egyptian Geese at the Round Pond still have eight goslings, and are guarding them attentively.


The other pair still have five, which were straying all over the place while their careless mother dozed.

The two survivors on the Serpentine were sheltering under their mother, safe for a while.


A Tufted drake's head showed a fine iridescence in the sunlight.


A pair of Gadwalls ate algae from the lake floor, and the female caught midges flying low over the water.


The Coots' nest on a post at Peter Pan gets larger every day, but there still aren't any eggs in it.


It's not at all clear what's going on in the top Grey Herons' nest on the island. It had a sitting bird in it, and there is now always a standing adult, which may (or may not) be guarding chicks still too small to be heard from the shore.


A heron stood in a disused Magpies' nest at the Triangle amid blossom of one of the myrobalan, or cherry plum, trees along the edge. There are also two plum trees bearing edible red and yellow plums, but you seldom see the fruit as people come in early and pick it.


The blossom was full of Honeybees from the hives in the Ranger's Lodge garden.


A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee at the Lido preferred a blackthorn bush.


Other insects included a Common Dronefly, Eristalis tenax, on a leaf in a Rose Garden Flower bed.


It just missed being eaten by one of the Robins ...


... whose mate was in a tree above.


The usual Blue Tits ...


... and Coal Tits arrived to be fed ...


... and a Wren bustled about in the bushes.


Another Wren hopped through the undergrowth at the northwest corner of the bridge ...


... while Long-Tailed Tits hunted in the upper branches.


The Song Thrush at the Henry Moore sculpture got a worm ...


... and there was a Pied Wagtail running about in the grass.


The tendency of the bold male Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens to plonk himself down right in front of your feet is quite alarming. So far I've managed to stop in time. He found me at the southwest corner of the bridge, but can turn up anywhere.