The Moorhens in the Italian Gardens have brought their chicks out on to the open water, revealing that there are five of them. They looked very vulnerable, but fortunately there were no big gulls around. Here one of the chicks manages to stand on a patch of algae, something possible only for a tiny bird with enormous feet.
The Coots are back in full control of the poplar where the Great Crested Grebes nested, and have a made a fine strong nest for themselves. Not sure whether they will go any farther with this, as it is very late in the year for breeding. The Coots in the Italian Garden have abandoned their third nest, which is now just a slowly disintegrating lump of mashed plants.
The gardeners have finally cut down the jungle of nettles in the leaf yard, revealing among other things a Blackbird's nest -- but no harm done, as the nest was vacated weeks ago and there are young Blackbirds wandering around all over the area.
The bare ground is now covered with bits of chopped nettle. If the park management had any sense they would leave it like this, as it would make a good mulch to keep down regrowth. But no doubt, as they have done in the past, they will foolishly spread leafmould on it to nourish the next crop of giant nettles.
Hyde Park was a truly hideous place to be this morning, with three helicopters clattering overhead so that you had to shout to have a conversation with someone next to you. I was told to keep off the grass by an idiotic security man. Around the lake, rows of loudspeakers were spreading pop music like a bad smell while the crowd, corraled by metal fences, were obediently paying £2.30 for small bottles of Coca-Cola™. But in the very centre of the rumpus, at the Serpentine island, a family of Great Crested Grebes were peacefully dozing, indifferent to the land creatures.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your wonderful bird blog, and how grateful I am to you for the kindness and generous desire to help that you never fail to show in the classics-l.
A fellow classicist/bird fancier.
Gosh, you've got me with both my hats on. Thank you very much for your kind words.
DeleteYou think you suffered from nopise pollution? You did well to avoid being amongst the actual crowds attending the Triathlon. It was a naturalist's idea of hell but I kept gping for the sake of my godchildren. The 8 and 10year old seemed to respond positively to the 'musak' (if that is how you spell the racket generated by those electronic machines) and were swaying in time to the rhythm. They were mostly bored and fractious but did enjoy a close-up of the final, running event from their tall father's shoulders. He, like the Brownlee Brothers went to Leeds University so there had been plently of coverage in the Old Boys's Newsletter or whatever. I must say that I felt quite emotional myself, sitting by then on the ground amongst the feet, as I saw the heads of the first three leading runners speed by and heard the exciting commentary on our victory over the loudspeaker system. We were on the slightly raised bank, about half way between the Lido and the Dell. I noticed that some Coots remained in the shallow water at the edge - throughout the swimming event, I think. A flock of about a dozen Canada geese wheeled around overhead, starting to become impatient with the intruders before the swimming had completely ended. By the time the competitors were all out of the water, they had re-established themselves near the Blue Boat Hire area.
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