Friday 20 November 2015

The Black Swan and his girlfriend were, as usual, forcing their way to the front of a crowd of Mute Swans that were being fed. The girlfriend got bitten for her cheekiness.


In the middle of the Serpentine, a Cormorant was bringing up small fish draped in the algae they were lurking among.


There are clearly plenty of edible things in the algae. This Black-Headed Gull brought up an unidentifiable weed-draped object and carefully shook the water off it before carrying it away to unwrap.


A young Great Crested Grebe, probably from the nest on the island, was near the Dell restaurant hunting small fish sheltering under the carpet of dead leaves.


On the edge of the Round Pond a Pied Wagtail had found a small yellow grub.


Their ability to find tiny creatures on what looks like bare stone is always astonishing. If you take 20 pictures of a wagtail, at least one of them will show the bird with something in its beak.

At the edge of the Vista a Magpie was looking for easier pickings in a bin.


A moment later it dived in, but didn't emerge with anything.

Mistle Thrushes were eating berries in a rowan tree on Buck Hill.


An Egyptian Goose on the edge of the Round Pond was drinking from a muddy puddle, when it could have had the clean water in the pond, which is fed from a borehole.


I have seen this preference again and again among geese. There seems to be something in the taste of borehole water that they don't like, probably dissolved minerals -- London water is notoriously hard.

Two pictures included just because the birds are beautiful: a Starling shining in the low sunlight at the Round Pond ...


... and a Blue Tit in the leaf yard staring at me, impatient for photography to end and feeding to begin.

3 comments:

  1. Those two last pictures are priceless. The blue tit's expression is proof enough that birds are truly dinosaurs.

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  2. I agree that the last two are precious.
    The most common birds are always the ones which look the most beautiful when pictured up close.
    Especially the glossy colours of the starling.

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