Monday 18 February 2013


The Bearded Tits have moved to Regent's Park, where they were seen in the reed bed near the boat hire building. Well, we have had our show and it is time for it to open at another venue.  It is also, from their point of view, excellent news. There are only two lakes with reed beds in central London, and they have shown that they can move from one to the other. So they are not as disoriented as we supposed, and it is not too much to hope that they know their way home, wherever that is.

While I was looking for them this morning, there was a furious fight between two male Egyptian Geese in the gap in the reed bed. A female was looking on, encouraging them with hoarse cries.


On the Vista there was a much more peaceful scene: the year's first brood of Egyptian Geese.


However, this couple are hopeless parents. They were the first pair of Egyptian Geese to arrive on the lake, at least four years ago, and have an unbroken record of breeding failure. Their young seldom survive more than a couple of days, and then the pair breed again and lose another brood. By the way, there are two pairs of Egyptian Geese on the lake in which the female has no eye patch, and the other pair are the skilled parents on the Serpentine who hatched eight young last year and brought them all through to adulthood. What a contrast in parenting skill.

At the outflow of the Serpentine, the pair of Great Crested Grebes who made a nest in the reeds during the last mild spell, and abandoned it when the cold weather returned, are having another try.


This time they have made their nest outside the net, a less good idea than the previous place. The blue plastic bag is their idea of domestic ornament, though they prefer red objects if they can find them. Plastic bags are also used in the construction of the nest, laid on in the same way as strands of algae but, from a grebe's point of view, much more extensive and durable.

A Mistle Thrush was sitting in a tree across the road from the Serpentine Gallery.


This is not the usual place for them, and I think they have been scared away from their territory near the Albert Memorial by the protracted and noisy construction of the hideous marquee for the Burberry sales event. Collins Bird Guide points out that the pale brown patch across the bird's rump shows that it is a first-winter bird. There was only one young bird from the nest in this area last year, so evidently this is the same one.

2 comments:

  1. She looks as if she is enjoying it (top picture)!

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    1. Yes, that was my thought too as I watched them.

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