... House Martins ...
... and Swifts over the Serpentine, though I only manage to get pictures of the first two. There was not yet any sign of activity at the House Martins' nest site on the Kuwaiti Embassy in Knightsbridge.
On the lake, the sole survivor of the brood of Egyptian Geese was still clinging to life. It had wandered some distance away from its parents, but the numerous Herring Gulls hadn't noticed.
The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had claimed a new victim in his usual hunting ground near the Dell restaurant.
A pair of Red-Crested Pochards were enjoying a less bloody meal nearby.
One of the Grey Wagtails had found a small grub near the terrace of the Lido restaurant.
On the other side of the Lido, the Black Swan was preening. Then he cruised off calling for his girlfriend.
The Mute Swans' nest next to the bridge, which yesterday and the day before had been deserted and appeared to have been raided by a fox, is still in business, and there is an egg in it. There is no way of telling whether it's one laid earlier or a recent one. Swans cover their eggs with great care before leaving the nest.
The Little Owl in the oak tree was looking out from the hole.
A Treecreeper was running up a birch tree nearby, well camouflaged on the darker bits of the bark, which it kept to because the rough surface might harbour interesting insects.
A pair of Blackcaps were leaping about in a tree near the Lido. This is the male.
A Wagtail's diet consists of so small creatures that it is no wonder than half of the time they appear to live on air itself.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I watch them jump and piroutte like so many tiny ace pilots, as if the act of propelling their tiny bodies through the air were sustenance enough. More prosaicly, though, I suppose that the morsels of food they get are so tiny as to be almost imperceptible.
They seem to accumulate substantial bundles of insects when they are feeding their young. Evidently when the catch insects in flight for themselves, there are swallowed at once so we never see them.
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