The leaf yard was full of small birds waiting to be fed. This Nuthatch came down to take pine nuts from the railings.
A Coal Tit -- perhaps the only one in the leaf yard at present -- also showed up and, after a great deal of hesitation and hopping around, also came down to the railings.
These tiny birds are easily intimidated by larger ones. But fairly soon it is going to pluck up courage and come to my hand to be fed, and once you have got a Coal Tit to trust you they follow you around, sometimes for hundreds of yards, flying out at frequent intervals for more food.
The female Tawny Owl was again on her perch in the beech tree.
I didn't see the male, who was late coming out of the nest hole yesterday and was probably doing the same today.
The female Little Owl was in the pair's currently favourite place high up in the chestnut tree next to their nest tree.
A Cormorant had caught a fish near the Italian Garden and was carefully turning it round to swallow it head first.
For reference, this is the second pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull. It is not quite as large as the first one, and has chalky yellow legs rather than the first one's deep yellow legs.
It was stalking pigeons in a desultory manner on its usual beat between the Triangle car park and the small boathouses.
These slightly battered mushrooms were at the bottom of Buck Hill near the Italian Garden.
I couldn't see what they were, but one had been kicked over so I took a close-up shot of the underside. I think it is a Blusher, Amanita rubescens, so called because it stains red where it has been damaged, as you can see on the bruised stem.
These mushrooms are edible, and I have eaten them in the past and they are very tasty. However, this is the only British member of the genus Amanita that is edible, and it is easily confused with the Panther Cap, A. pantherina, which is rather poisonous. The genus also includes the fatal Death Cap, A. phalloides, and the Fly Agaric, A. muscaria, the pretty red mushroom with white spots that causes vomiting and hallucinations. So you have to be dead sure of what you have picked, or you may end up just plain dead.
Update: See Joseph's detailed -- and gruesome -- account of a kill by the original pigeon-eating gull, in the comments below.
Yes, they look like Blushers, and I have found them in various places in the park. Just one correction: the Blusher is not the only member of the Amanita genus which is edible. In particular, Amanita caesarea, Caesar's Mushroom, has been prized as one of the best edible mushroom since Roman time, although it isn't found in this country.
ReplyDeleteMario
Oops, forgot that one. It was part of the last meal that the emperor Claudius consumed, as it had been given a sauce made from one of the poisonous Amanitas, possibly at the instigation of Nero. 'Food of the gods!', he joked afterwards, since in dying the emperor had technically become divine.
ReplyDeleteAs discussed yesterday:
ReplyDeleteThe Lesser Black Backed. Nov. 11 2014 around 15:00
There was the usual scene of people near the Dell restaurant feeding a motley collection – Canada Geese, Swans, Pigeons, Black-Headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Coots – and while the Lesser Black-Backed was paying no heed to the bits of bread being thrown around it was very attentive to everything else. It made a couple of half-hearted sorties into the throng but the pigeons just flapped away. It’s a very wary bird in normal circumstances – when it realised I was watching it flew off and didn’t return till I moved some distance away – so I suspect this milling throng of large and small animals, especially humans, is off-putting and explains the hesitant sorties.
And then, unexpectedly and determinedly, it attacked in the more open direction, suddenly turning away from the throng and grabbing an isolated pigeon on the edge of the water, taking it a short way into the lake and submerging it. There was a big struggle and then all went quiet and it started to hack at the body. But the pigeon wasn’t dead. In the next ten minutes as it was having flesh voraciously torn off, it made several forlorn attempts to head for dry land, the last two particularly poignant as a section of its back was missing and, watched by the gull, it made a feeble attempt to move before being stabbed yet again by the powerful bill. So, where once they may have suffered death by drowning the victims now may be suffering death by being eaten.
I use these violent words advisedly. The gull really did tear at the flesh relentlessly and voraciously.
It carried on eating the pigeon in the water for about twenty minutes more and then flew off. I thought it must be sated but it returned after a minute or so to have another go. After it flew off a second time another smaller Lesser Black Backed (its mate, as Ralph has observed?) had a go but not for very long. What remained was then left to its own devices, floating in the water.
I was surprised that no other birds showed any interest. When the carcase has been on land it’s been picked clean by corvids or gulls but none of the other gulls or swimming omnivores went near this one on either occasion it was left by the two Lesser Black Backed. I also was struck by the fact that this happened shortly before dusk. It’s unlikely the Gull had been waiting all day to have its meal, so does it take more than one pigeon a day. Two? Three? More? And since the final resting place of this one will be the bottom of the Serpentine does it mean that the few carcases that are spotted are just a small proportion of the victims?
This saga all went on unnoticed by the vast majority of people, who were watching the milling throng or other things. The alacrity, skill and cleverness of this bird meant the capture was all over in the blink of an eye.
Many thanks for this fascinating and grisly account.
DeleteHi Ralph.
ReplyDeleteI missed all the pigeon killing gull action but had a great couple of hours wandering around the Park on the 12th thanks to your blog. I had the best views I have ever had of tawny owl and little owl (thanks to Malcolm and a lady birder very kindly pointing them out to me).So much wildlife in the centre of London! Sad to see only 5 Egyptian goose chick left though, 3 have disappeared since your entry on the 8th. Keep up the excellent blogging!
Thanks. Very glad you managed to find both owls.
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