You can hardly see his distinctive stripes from this angle, and until he started singing I thought he was some kind of warbler.
The pair of Grey Wagtails were flying around the east end of the Serpentine and the Dell, where they will nest under the little plank bridge. Here is the female standing on a rock at the top of the waterfall.
You can tell she's female because the males have a black bib and more yellow on their front. Usually females have a grey bib; this one has an unusually white throat.
Near the Dell, workmen are assembling floating reed beds. They are made from large tiles of what looks like black sponge rubber, covered with a very thin layer of earth and a pre-grown mat of reeds laid like turf. When I went past, no one was there so I couldn't ask where they will be put. This is probably a good idea, since when normal reed beds were laid in 2010 three-quarters of them died because they were planted in the toxic city sludge that had accumulated on the bottom of the lake.
The first tile was already afloat and clothed in reeds, and a Moorhen had promptly made itself at home.
A pair of Mandarins were wandering about on the west side of the Vista, until they were chased away by a Magpie which objected to them for some reason.
This male Chaffinch follows me around to be fed.
While I was taking the previous photograph there was a sharp cheep and I discovered the little bird standing on the ground by my toes. He has taken at least 20 sunflower seeds from my hand, one after the other.
The male Tawny Owl stayed inside for some time -- it was an unpleasant morning -- but had emerged by 4 pm when I revisited his tree.
if Tawny male is still on his usual tree, does that mean the chicks are still inside ,too - do you think?
ReplyDeleteI really can't guess. Usually the owlets are out by now, but they could be running late. Or some of them might be out, escorted by the female to a tree we haven't found, and a smaller one might be still inside. This is what happened last year, and very baffling it was.
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