His mate is almost as dark. Grebes mate for life, so she is probably as old as he is, both or them darkening year by year.
A whirl of dead leaves near the Rima relief turned out to have a Magpie in the middle, which was tossing them about looking for insects underneath.
We haven't had a picture of a Great Tit for a while, so here is one in the leaf yard collecting a pine nut.
The three Green Woodpeckers were on the Archery Field again, next to the Kensington Palace railings because they were keeping their distance from a bunch of Magpies and Carrion Crows at the other end.
The Jackdaws were in front of Kensington Palace as usual.
Towards sunset a flock of Greylag Geese left the Round Pond, heading southwest, presumably bound for the river.
There are surprising number of Greylags on the Thames upstream of central London, including a permanent colony at St Mary's church in Battersea, which is on the edge of the river.
The male Tawny Owl was in his place on the nest tree, looking a bit windswept.
It is definitely not cherry blossom time, but this tree near the Italian Garden has been set off by a couple of mild days.
Ralph, you may not know, but there is a variety of cherry tree called Prunus Autumnalis Rosea. I have one. It is in flower now - just as it should be. The blossom you show looks very similar. Alan Titchmarsh says every garden should have one, and I agree. The joy of its little pink blooms popping into flower in December - well it's pretty special. Thanks for the Grebe picture. I adore them (well worship them really!).
ReplyDeleteHmm.I wonder. Must look at the council's standard flowering cherry trees in the local streets.
Deletehttps://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/details?plantid=5464 is the tree you are looking for. It's quite unusual - perhaps it should be grown more for winter cheer. The full Latin name is Prunus × subhirtella 'Autumnalis Rosea'.
DeleteI visited the gardens on the 17th and was quite surprised to see a jackdaw. I found your blog when searching for information about them there. I may have seen you talking to visitors by the round pond. This is a link to a short video I took of the birds there: http://youtu.be/9Kns1aOVgww
ReplyDeleteI will follow your future posts with interest.
Thank you, that video gives a very good idea of what it's like to be in the park at this time of year.
DeleteThe Jackdaws have only been back in the park for about a year. There used to be a colony in the elm trees until 1968, when the elm disease killed the trees and they left. It is very good to see the return of these charming birds.