Thursday 27 August 2015

More Cormorants have arrived on the lake in the past few days, and there are now about a dozen. This is a sign that the young fish have grown to a size large enough to be interesting, as a Cormorant is not going to bother to fly in from the river unless there is something worth eating. Here the Great Crested Grebes nesting on the fallen poplar in the Long Water are undisturbed by having a couple of this ominous creatures so close to them.


One of the grebes in the picture above ventured into the territory of the family to the north of them, and was repelled by a massed display of family solidarity and slunk away. Grebes with chicks usually win territorial disputes just by parading their offspring.


On the Serpentine, a skein of Greylag Geese was coming down in the water. You can see the different stages of descent, braking, water skiing, and settling.


On the shore, Blondie the Egyptian Goose was pushing through a flock of Feral Pigeons to get at some food that was being offered.


The two Jackdaws at the bridge plonked themselves down in front of me to demand their daily peanuts.


There were a lot of Pied Wagtails running around on the Parade Ground, mostly young ones. Here for a change is an adult female. She can be distinguished from the male by having a dark grey back rather than a black one.


Again, there was a large flock on Long Tailed Tits in the Flower Walk. They spent a long time in the old apple tree just inside the gate behind the Albert Memorial, which must have been infested with insects.


In the afternoon the male Little Owl came out in last year's nest tree.


Underneath these chestnut trees there were some little fungi. I saw them her last year, and photographed them, and still have the picture, but I can't find where I published it and have not been able to find their name again. I remember that they are very short-lived and dry up within a day, and that the yellow colour on the cap is bright at first but then fades.


Update: I found the earlier mention on my blog eventually -- for some reason the date on the photograph was wrong. I think these are Yellow Fieldcaps (Bolbitius titubans). But I am no expert in these matters.

3 comments:

  1. All being well, I'll visit the park tomorrow. I hope to see one of the Little Owls. But, if not, I have the Grebe chicks to look forward to

    ReplyDelete