He took the opportunity to show off in front of her. Swans are impressed by this kind of behaviour.
Some Cormorants were fishing in the middle of a group of Mute Swans, which were undisturbed by the constant diving and surfacing. Perhaps they were using the swans as cover, as Great Crested Grebes often do -- the fish are not alarmed by harmless birds and fail to notice the hunter among them.
The Cormorants' discarded weed was being snatched by gulls, which were chasing one another for the prize. I don't think there was anything edible in it, but gulls will always seize a chance.
A Moorhen was enjoying a salad near the Dell restaurant ...
... until it was shoved aside by a swan.
Undeterred by the Saturday crowds, the fearless female Pied Wagtail was running up and down the windswept shore of the Serpentine.
There were a couple of Fieldfares in the rowan trees on Buck Hill.
A Carrion Crow was looking regal on the crown above the relief of Queen Victoria in the Italian Garden.
This blog has taken on a whole new 'frisson' since the black swan arrived with a splash. I hope he never flies away!
ReplyDeleteIt's getting a bit sensational, I fear.
DeleteIf (hypothetically of course) the Black swan flew away is it likely that its girlfriend will go with it?
ReplyDeleteIt depends how attached she is to him. On the evidence so far, I doubt she'd follow him. But their relationship may strengthen. Anyway, he shows no sign of leaving.
DeleteThe swan romance is high drama. I shouldn't enjoy it as much as I do. But, I'm glad the other birds are learning to enjoy left over salads after all. They did sometimes turn their noses up at something other thean bread or chocolate cupcakes. Good to see. How is everyone doing with the weather? I heard there were some bad storms with flooding, but apparently not in London. Great stuff. Enjoying the blog. Sorry we won't be in London in the spring as usual.
ReplyDeleteIt's simply amazing what the birds in the park will eat. In this very cosmopolitan city they get the leftovers of the cuisines of the world, everything from smorgasbord to sushi, and hoover it up. The weather is just the usual British kind for late autumn and early winter, that is, fairly nasty, but the media have to have something to get agitated about.
DeleteThanks for updating us on the weather report situation and for easing our minds - if Spanish media were to be believed, England would be in the middle of the second edition of the Flood. I was starting to worry.
DeletePerhaps I should amend my earlier remark. There are floods, not apocalyptic but disruptive to life over quite a wide area in northern England. This is a soggy country and, when it rains heavily in any part of it, you get floods in low lying areas. This has always been the case, though in some places, such as Essex, flooding has been made more of a problem by urban expansion on to unsuitable land. The main difference now is that when floods occur anywhere, the media go into paroxysms about global warming and portents of doom.
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