This tree gives better cover from the Magpies that were annoying them yesterday on the open branch of the beech tree, and it probably shields them better from the wind. But who knows why owls pick their perches?
The male Little Owl was also out in the sunshine, though the wind was tossing his branch about and he was getting a bit ruffled himself. Here he is, looking unconcerned but keeping one eye on me just in case.
For several days there has been flock of a couple of hundred Starlings on Buck Hill, flying around and settling in one or other of the large trees.
It is not quite enough to make one of those marvellous swirls of flying Starlings, but nevertheless the precise way they fly together, all turning at the same time, is a fine spectacle.
A Dunnock came out among the red stems of the sumac bushes east of the Lido restaurant.
There has been a pair of Dunnocks on this spot for years. The shy birds are hard to see, and are generally foraging on the ground inside the bushes. If you are quiet and patient, they will relax enough to take food thrown to them.
The diet of Moorhens is regrettable from a human point of view.
But it is this ability to eat absolutely anything that is even faintly nutritious that has led to their success. They are surprisingly widely distributed in Central London. I once saw a pair in the Edgware Road, far from the water in a small ornamental shrubbery on the corner of Sussex Gardens.
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