However, the new Egyptian Goose family at the Lido were not worried, and were cruising up and down in the bathing area hoping to be given unsuitable and unhealthy snacks.
The number of Mute Swans on the reed raft was up to eight, plus the white Mallard, all busy preening.
The two Cormorants on the Long Water which have settled on the swan island were fishing all around it, working as a pair for greater efficiency. Here one of them dives, to be followed by the other a fraction of a second later.
The usual small birds were on view in the leaf yard -- they enjoy weekends and holidays because more people come to feed them. Here is one of the two pairs of Nuthatches ...
... and a Blue Tit.
The bumblebees were active in the sunshine. Here one of them visits a garish polyanthus, which is probably bright ultraviolet as well as mauve and visible to a bumblebee from a long distance away.
Update: Africa Gómez has identified the bee -- see comments below.
Why did this squirrel take a paper tissue up a tree? It's too late to be building a drey as a winter refuge.
As the nesting season is here, should I stop feeding the small birds pine nuts and sunflower seeds? I'm worried that their chicks may choke if fed this food stuff. Sue.
ReplyDeleteNo, both these are OK, but don't given them peanuts.
DeleteRalph when I visited Savill Gardens recently they had a sign at the ticket desk saying please don't feed bread to the birds, and selling packs of approved bird food (these were opaque, so I couldn't see what was in them). This seemed a good idea.
DeleteYes, depending on what was in the opaque packs, of course -- were they intended for waterfowl or little songbirds? One problem is that the ducks, geese and swans in the park are so used to being fed bread that when you give them so-called wildfowl food, which is grain of some kind, they don't recognise it as edible. Another is that people don't take any notice of signs. There are signs at the Round Pond telling you not to feed bread to the birds, but it doesn't stop people, including one man who goes there all the time and is abusive when challenged. Of course there are also signs all around the Round Pond telling people to put dogs on leads, and look what happens.
DeleteGreat reply Ralph. Yes, it seems impossible to 'educate' some folk! I came to my own conclusion not to feed anything to birds (outside of my garden) - they are stuffed with the inappropriate food others bring, and there is so much natural food in the places I visit anyway!
DeleteHi Ralph, your bumblebee is in fact a male of the early solitary bee, Hairy-Footed Flower bee, Anthophora plumipes, a harbinger of spring and one of my favourite bees. They do look like little bumblebees: the males tawny and the females jet black, with orange rear legs where they carry pollen. Records for the species can be reported here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=content/submit-sighting-anthophora-plumipes-hairy-footed-flower-bee
And there is more info on the species here:
http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=content/beginners-bees-and-wasps-anthophora-plumipes
Thanks very much for the correction. It's always a pleasure to be put right on a subject of which I am deplorably ignorant.
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