The parent had been preening and one of its small feathers had come out, so this was offered to the chick. They start on an adult diet of fish as soon as they are hatched, and need feathers to wrap up the sharp bones and prevent them from damaging their inside.
There was just one Common Tern on the Long Water again today.
The family with two young seem to have gone away, despite the fact that the lake is now teeming with small fish. This tern was probably a different, unattached one. It seemed lonely, as it called occasionally, but no other tern showed up.
The Robins in the shrubbery are silent -- this is the only time of year when they don't sing -- and are therefore not as noticeable as usual. But this one came out of the leaf yard to be fed.
Their young are independent now, and soon all the Robins will begin to claim their winter territories and start singing again. They have individual territories, and females and males both sing to defend them.
There is a yellow plum tree a little to the east of the purple plum tree by the Triangle car park. Both trees have good sweet fruit of a rather small size. It was being visited by a flock of Long-Tailed Tits, hunting for insects on the plums.
The male Little Owl was in his usual chestnut tree, though on a different branch.
He was the only owl I could find today, but one owl is better than none.
Two isolated reed stems sticking out of the water in front of a reed bed near the Italian Garden have for some days been the headquarters of three male Common Blue damselflies. They perch on the stems until an insect comes by, and then speed out and seize it.
There was a Flower Beetle on the ragwort on Buck Hill.
They look different from other beetles because their shiny metallic green wing cases don't meet in the middle.
No comments:
Post a Comment