There's no way of telling who the father might be. The goose was with its sibling, as usual. Could her brother be her mate? Such things are not uncommon among birds but, if so, it means that both of them are fertile.
The Black Swan was nowhere to be seen when I went round the lake, so I went round another time and eventually found him on the Long Water a short way from the Vista. He was having a faceoff with a Mute Swan, while his girlfriend watched ...
... and then chased it off.
Two Red-Crested Pochard drakes were also fighting on the Serpentine.
A sunny spell brought out the fine iridescence on a Mallard drake's head. The blue secondary feathers of its wings are also iridescent.
The Egyptian Geese on the Round Pond are down to four young, but were looking after them quite attentively. They are not in danger playing in the choppy waves, but there were a lot of Herring Gulls waiting for their chance.
A young Herring Gull on the Serpentine was improving its hunting skills by catching a dropped stick.
The two Great Crested Grebe nests are still on the go. This is the one near the bridge ...
... and this is the one at the east end of the island.
Several Chiffchaffs were singing around the lake. This one was in a tree near Peter Pan.
The Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was not deterred by a shower, and was preening in the usual hole in the oak tree.
I would never had imagined that a hybrid might not be sterile. That's an amazing picture!
ReplyDeleteAll we can do is wait and see.
DeleteSo sterile geese may still lay unfertilised eggs - is that correct?
DeleteI don't think so. I think females have to be fertile to lay eggs, though these may be unfertilised.
DeleteI love your blog. Do you go to Hyde Park every day? I went there on Monday and took photos of the black swan and his girlfriend, which I have put on my own blogspot blog. I only started blogging recently so have a lot to learn.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes, I do go to the park every day, and have just completed four years of uninterrupted daily blogging.
DeleteWell done - I have a long way to go!
DeleteI was intrigued by your newly-minted binomial, "Branta candadensis”, which obviously refers to the prominent white colouring of the animal’s neck-stripe and rump. Perhaps if the hybrid eggs *do prove viable, the new species might be named “Anser candidus”, after Lucretius ("Romulidarum arcis servator, candidus anser”, "the white goose, / The saviour of the Roman citadel” – “De Rerum Natura", IV.683).
ReplyDeleteAn occasional typo is allowable. But surprised to hear that Roman domestic geese, which are genetically Greylags, were already white in Roman republican times.
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