Tuesday 6 October 2015

Stock doves are normally shy and stay up in trees when people are around. But beside the Rudolf Steiner bench, among a lot of ordinary Feral Pigeons, here was one poking around on the path. At first I thought it had to be an unusually coloured Feral Pigeon, but it has all the markings of a Stock Dove, and the distinctive dark eyes and thin bill.


In the Flower Walk, the gardeners were digging up a flower bed. Freshly turned earth is a magnet for Robins, which like to search the clods for exposed earthworms, and sure enough one came out.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had been away from his usual hunting ground at the Dell restaurant for several days, but today he was back, as hungry as ever. Several wary pigeons flew away as soon as he started creeping up on him, so he had to content himself with a comforting preening session. I'm sure he managed to catch one eventually.


A new gull toy: this young Herring Gull was amusing itself by dropping a round plane tree fruit on to the concrete slope at the edge of the lake, and watching it roll down into the water.


When a Grey Heron stares directly at you, so you are seeing its long bill head on, it looks oddly like its distant relative the Brontosaurus. This one was on the Serpentine island.


Part of the Lombardy poplar tree next to Peter Pan has fallen into the lake, and a couple of Canada Geese were examining the debris.


One of the young Great Crested Grebes from the nest on the other fallen poplar was fishing by itself on the Serpentine. But it must have missed its prey, because it came up with nothing but a strand of algae and a twig.


The male Little Owl was sitting high up in this year's nest tree, in a place where I haven't seen him before before. I might have missed him, but he called loudly to his mate ...


... who was preening herself in the next tree.


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