There are probably two Kingfishers permanently on the lake, but you only get an occasional glimpse of them, mostly a flash of blue streaking across the water and landing on a branch out of sight.
The Teal also came briefly out of a patch of reeds and immediately disappeared into another.
The Black Swan was at the east end of the Serpentine attending to his feathers.
His girlfriend's brother was peacefully asleep nearby.
When the Black Swan had finished preening, he swam over to the brother who, like all birds, was sleeping with one eye open and sat up and looked at him. I was expecting an outbreak of hostilities, but in fact they just passed each other, a bit warily perhaps. It seems that the Black Swan is calming down.
A pair of Great Crested Grebes were displaying on the Serpentine.
They didn't get quite revved up enough to do their dance, but this will probably happen soon. One of them is still in plain winter plumage, but grebes don't require full dress for their rituals.
A young Herring Gull on the Long Water was picking up a piece of weed, dropping it into the lake, and diving to catch it.
There was a Green Woodpecker in a small tree on Buck Hill.
At the bottom of the hill there was a female Blackbird with a white face. Usually it is the males that have white patches.
A Carrion Crow was cawing furiously beside the Serpentine, proclaiming ownership of a bit of plastic bag it had found while other crows sat around in the trees.
After all this fuss, there was no food in the plastic.
A Robin was looking almost camouflaged among some bright brown beech leaves.
ralph, do you think the kingfishers breed on the lake? or just do their fishing here? i can't think of a place suitable for them to nest.
ReplyDeleteMark W2
The two on the lake a certainly a pair. But I have seen no evidence of nesting. This is not surprising, as the birds are hard to see at all.
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