Tuesday 26 May 2015

The unlucky Mute Swan on the Long Water has lost not only his mate but his territory. Yesterday a large band of swans, driven off the Serpentine by the gargantuan building works for the triathlon, invaded, and although he did his best to drive them away they are in control now, shamelessly courting in his backyard ...


... and engaging in random acts of hooliganism, which used to be his privilege.


He will have to find a new mate and fight hard to win back his water.

The Reed Warblers at the Diana memorial fountain were flying across the gap in the reed bed, which made them much easier to see than usual.


A male Pied Wagtail with three young was hunting insects on the jetty of the Lido bathing area, which is a good place for them because bugs lurk in the grooves in the non-slip matting. The young birds were already hunting for themselves, and when one of them went to his father to beg for food he was told off sharply.


A Treecreeper was also looking for insects near the Speke obelisk.


This Dunnock at the Albert Memorial was having to make do with seeds.


There is a Magpies' nest on the east side of the Long Water near the bridge with two young in it, almost old enough to leave. Here is one of them looking out amid the blossom.


The male Little Owl was in his usual place, posing for his daily photo-op with practised ease.

4 comments:

  1. As you observed Ralph the Male Mute Swan has lost his territory as there were 23 Mute Swans when I was there. I found him later by the Diana Fountain preening himself and noticed the small pink mark on the left side of his cheek was smaller, presumably the feathers are growing over it. When they do I don't think I will recognise him.

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    1. He has a lot to do, but I think he'll do it. He is a very tough bird.

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  2. Thanks for your lovely blog..I just discovered it when I was trying to identify the Egyptian Goose family - we did notice there was a smaller member, so she must be the adopted sibling you referred to. We are not bird experts but do love seeing beautiful creatures on our travels. We are an Australian family travelling for a year: hjrkeesman.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you. I hope you're enjoying your visit. Sadly, you're a couple of months too late for the visit of your compatriot the Maned Goose, who put a scare into the much larger Egyptians and then flew off somewhere unknown.

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