But no, it was the female of this pair, as I discovered when I got to the other side of the pond, and there was the familiar big male gull with his bright yellow legs. As usual, he was being pestered by his teenage chick. He had the expression of the master of the workhouse when Oliver Twist asked for more gruel.
So they had just moved to the Round Pond for the day -- perhaps to get away from the hideous amplified pop music which is polluting several square miles of London as the vast ugly concert arena is being spread over the Parade Ground.
When a young Great Crested Grebe asks for more, it gets it. This is one of the chicks from the nest on the island.
One of the Canada-Greylag Goose hybrids was also looking to expand its diet, testing the leaves along the edge of the shrubbery below the Triangle car park. It liked this one, and ate several.
It's a relief that the deadly poisonous castor bean plant is no longer at the end of this shrubbery, as it was last year.
The young Pied Wagtail at the Lido restaurant was boldly flying from table to table looking for scraps. I didn't manage to get a photograph, as the terrace was packed solid with people, but I did get one of it washing at the edge of the lake.
A Blackbird was enjoying more traditional food in the rowan trees on Buck Hill.
This Wren is poised on the wire mesh of one of the enclosures under the parapet of the Italian Garden, about to dive into the leaves.
The enclosures were planted with irises, but these haven't come up, and the tangle of miscellaneous weeds that have grown instead is thronged with insects. It is just the kind of place a Wren likes. The less successful the gardening, the better for birds.
The male Little Owl was sunning himself on his favourite branch.
After yesterday's feast of fungi, perhaps there is room for one more. This is another Giant Polypore, on a dead tree near the Speke obelisk. It is only about 14 inches across, half the size of the immense one I photographed on 26 September, but there are three of them on the tree so they make a fine show.
The unfortunate pigeon was still only half eaten when I passed by around 7:00 pm and none of the gulls were to be seen. They usually polish off the kill or leave meagre pickings. I wonder what was going on here.
ReplyDeleteOften the carcase is picked clean by crows, and the ones at the Serpentine are always on the lookout for a half-eaten pigeon. Perhaps the Round Pond crows, stuffed with special fried rice and cheezy wotsits, haven't got the idea yet.
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