They will nest in the cornices of the French and Kuwaiti embassies in Knightsbridge, just to the east of the east end of the Serpentine. The colony is still recovering from having its nests wrecked by the redecoration of the French embassy, with a dry spring in the following year which made it impossible to gather mud to rebuild their nests. Luckily for them, it looks as if we are back into normal cold, wet English spring weather.
The Great Crested Grebe nest under the willow near the bridge is, against expectations, well established.
There should be no problem in hatching the chicks, but the parents are going to have a hard time finding food for them at this time of year when there are few small fish. There are no crayfish either, since these have had another die-off -- the last was in 2008.
This Moorhen can be seen every day sitting on the path to the west of the small boathouses. It refuses to budge even when you shove a camera in its face. This is its place, and it won't yield it to anyone.
A Gadwall drake on the Serpentine was stretching his wings after preening.
The white Mallard at the east end of the lake was also attending to her shining feathers.
There are Blackcaps all round the Long Water, with the males singing loudly.
The Cetti's Warbler was also singing from time to time. But I haven't heard a Willow Warbler for days, although there were several a couple of weeks ago.
The male Tawny Owl was again on the horse chestnut tree just to the north of his nest tree. And still no one has found his mate or any owlets.
The female Little Owl was out on a branch of her usual chestnut tree, but fled into the hole while I was still a hundred yards away. But she came up and looked out of the hole later.
Great news about the Grebe nest....fingers crossed for Grebelets soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm worried about their chance of survival at this time of year.
DeleteThe moorhen has got a badly injured left leg. I saw it move for an Egyptian Goose rather painfully and frantically but otherwise it moves as little as necessary. About a week ago I tempted it with pine nuts, which it would normally scoot after. This time it wasn't interested unless they landed within pecking distance. I thought I saw signs of improvement during the week but it seems not. Should I report it to someone or let nature take its course?
DeleteLeave it, I think. Intervention is likely to make things worse. Birds often recover from leg injuries.
Deletewe have seen the female little owl a few times in the chestnut tree. Where is the other chestnut tree where you saw the male tawny owl?
ReplyDeleteIt's a *horse* chestnut tree.Find the path that runs between the statue of Physical Energy and the obelisk that is a monument to the explorer Speke. Exactly half way along it is a bench, on the west side of the path. From here, walk west (slightly to the right of right angles to the path) for 50 yards, to a tall horse chestnut tree with its trunk broken off about three quarters of the way up. This is the nest tree. The tree where the male owl has been recently is another, slimmer horse chestnut a few feet away to the north. If you stand under the nest tree and look into this tree you may be able to see them -- but the owl's plumage matches the bark exactly and he is a long way up.
DeleteThank you for the directions. we will try to find it next time we are there. we saw two owls in the chestnut tree today(Monday 27th april) one was quite small and we think it may have been one of the owlets? the other looked like the small female owl. I will see if I can send one of our photos onto here, not sure if I can!
DeleteRalph, At 10am this morning at the Tawny nest tree, I spoke to someone who is in the park everyday and he said that the Tawny female had been seen over the weekend near the Albert Memorial with three owlets. He said it was in a tree near just over the bike path (I cannot picture this) when one walks from Physical Energy to the Albert Memorial. I hope that helps in the search. Lida
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for the news. I went to the place and hunted around, but haven't found them yet.
Deletewe were in the park again this afternoon and saw two owls in the chestnut tree next to the nest tree. we thought one looked like a smaller owl(owlet) maybe? and the other a larger owl which we think was the female small owl. we took some photos, but im not sure if I can attatch them onto your blog?
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ReplyDeleteI have sent the photos to above address.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I've looked at the pictures. They are our familiar pair of Little Owls, both adult. In the first two picture she is on the left and lower down in the hole. In the third, she is alone. Female owls are larger than males. In this pair the male has more strongly marked white eyebrows than the female, but that is just a difference between individuals.
DeleteI've removed my first answer because it has an email address in it.
Thank you now we know which ones we have seen. hopefully we or someone will find the owlets! would be amazing to get them on camera!
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