Earlier, there had been a furious rattling from a chestnut tree just up the hill. Two Mistle Thrushes were scolding some Magpies which had landed higher up in the tree. A Blackbird joined in the racket.
There was also a Great Spotted Woodpecker, which remained silent but was so engrossed by the Magpies that this normally very shy bird allowed me to come to within 30 ft of it.
The Carrion Crow family of Charlie, Melissa and Kevin chased me up and down Buck Hill, where I had gone to photograph Mistle Thrushes in the rowan trees. Charlie flew over my head and bashed me with his wing in his usual bumptious way. This is Kevin, who has been unusually brown ever since he was little. (We don't actually know if he's male, but he is called Kevin for convenience until someone finds out.)
There were several more Mistle Thrushes in and around the rowans. There has been an arrival of migrants here in the past couple of days.
The Black Swan was beside the terrace of the Dell restaurant. Some people were feeding the Mute Swans, and he pecked them out of the way to get to the front of the crowd.
His girlfriend arrived and he greeted her with raised head and hoots of delight.
Out on the lake, some Common Gulls were chasing a Black-Headed Gull which was carrying a bit of bread, dive-bombing the smaller bird until it dropped the food.
The young Great Crested Grebe from the nest on the island was cruising towards the Lido.
All the grebes were fishing in the middle of the lake. It seems that the numerous Cormorants have almost exhausted the stock of fish around the wire baskets under the bridge.
This fungus was growing on the east side of the Long Water a few yards north of the bridge. It is a Pestle Puffball, Lycoperdon excipuliforme, and there was one in the same place last year.
After the previous one had grown to the size of a man's fist, and burst to release its spores, the empty husk remained in place for several months. It is a very tough kind of fungus.
Hi Ralph,
ReplyDeleteI've sent a fuller version of this to the Austenb email account.
I paused at the Dell for half an hour this afternoon watching the Lesser Black Backed Gull hunting pigeons. Eventually it got one – in the same circumstances I’d seen it successful before. The victim was isolated, supping from the Serpentine with its back to the gull and the gull grabbed the pigeon’s back or part of it between its beak. They spilled into the water together but the gull briefly returned to the edge of the lake with its catch to get a securer grip. It didn’t leave go of the pigeon, it just pushed its beak further into the flesh, and then took to the water again, where it continued for a minute or so pushing in the same way. Its beak seemed to rise up towards the neck of the pigeon which indicates I think that it was getting deeper and deeper. After about a minute of this treatment the gull let go and paused with the pigeon floating in front of it, conscious and immobile. The pigeon hadn’t been submerged at any point during this process and was moving its head from time to time and the gull’s beak had not emerged once. At this point I left, not wanting to see what I saw about a year or so ago when the gull ate a pigeon alive.
Thanks for this and for the very interesting fuller account. It does indeed seem possible that the gull has learnt how to kill its prey without the need to drown it. In my experience -- and I have seen several other attacks that I didn't get a picture of -- the gull has always grabbed the pigeon by the back of the neck. I don't know whether this is from some innate killer instinct or simply because the neck is a fairly narrow and grabbable place.
DeleteFrom what I have seen I think that the gull's most successful technique for initially catching the bird is to wait until one carelessly strays close enough for a grab from a standing position. I have seen this succeed several yards from the water, after which the gull quickly carried its victim into the lake. But it would also realise that a drinking pigeon is vulnerable.
The gull developed this method after trying some less successful ones, such as dropping on to a passing pigeon from the restaurant roof or divebombing it in flight. Pigeons have faster acceleration from a standing start than Lesser Black-Backs, and a greater ability to dodge quickly.
I'm so sorry we won't be in London again soon, since our work there is finished. But, I completely enjoy your blog and the photos are super great! The quality looks perfect from here. The commentary always seems spot on too. ~Johanna
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure to meet you and I hope you can come to London at some time. Thanks for your kind words about the blog. For the last few months I have been using a new lens, a Pentax DFA 150-450mm zoom. Although shorter than the Sigma 150-500mm, it gives much sharper images and my ability to photograph distant objects properly has increased. Half the weight and a quarter the price of the Canon equivalent, but every bit as good optically.If Pentax do a 600 or 650 in the same series, I shall be round at the shop the day it comes out.
DeleteRaphe, the gull last year was walking and stalking on the ground, while people were feeding the pigeons. Maybe it learned to get them from the back while drinking water from the lake, but last year, it was stalking on the ground, then walked the hapless pigeon to the lake, and basically pecked it to pieces. I wouldn't say drowning was exactly the cause of death. https://www.flickr.com/photos/johannacalifornia/15298942360/in/dateposted/
ReplyDeleteYes, that was exactly what we saw, and I have tried to describe it above. The gull knows that he can't outfly a pigeon, and has to rely on stealth and surprise. Difficult to be sure about the cause of death, but a severed spinal cord is quite likely. I have watched big gulls pecking things open with surprising force.
Deletehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/johannacalifornia/15471122925/in/photostream/
ReplyDeleteThis is my own record of the same incident, taken on my old Lumix and now reduced to 1000 x 750 pixel shots:
Deletehttp://www.hancock.dircon.co.uk/gull_catching_pigeon.zip
A Coot tried to join in the fight at the crucial moment, blocking the view. I had assumed that it was something like waterboarding, and the pigeon did die of drowning. But it's hard to say.