Friday 27 May 2016

Another cygnet has hatched, this time to a pair of Mute Swans that were nesting in an almost invisible site on the Serpentine island. There seems to be only one.


The female swan on the Long Water had lined up her six cygnets on the little island and was surveying them with satisfaction.


The Black Swan, too young to take part in this game, was scratching his ear.


Blondie the Egyptian Goose still has six young. The two in the water were wandering all over the place unsupervised, and just happened to be passing when this picture was taken.


The Mandarin family have almost become a fixture next to the bridge.


The Coot nest insecurely attached to a submerged branch in the middle of the Long Water now has at least three eggs in it. The shaky structure tilts visibly when the Coot climbs on to it.


The Great Crested Grebes at the island still have their chick. The parent had caught a fish too large to bring to the chick, and ate it.


Great Crested Grebes could learn from Little Grebes here. Little Grebe chicks are so tiny that almost any fish is too big for them. So when a parent catches a fish, it shakes it violently until it falls to pieces, and then feeds the bits to the chicks. It would be perfectly possible for a Great Crested Grebe to do the same, but the idea hasn't occurred to them.

One of the young Pied Wagtails beside the Serpentine was calling loudly to be fed.


But when its parent flew off to fetch some insects, the young bird was perfectly capable of finding a little creature on the shoreline.


A Reed Warbler is often heard singing in the reed bed to the east of the Lido, and today he made an appearance.


You would think that this place was unsuitable for a nest, as the reeds are growing through a horizontal net two feet above the water which would seem to stop the birds from getting down to water level. But perhaps they have found a hole in the net.

The male Little Owl was on his usual branch in the chestnut tree.


At one time there were 15 Magpies on the ground, but they seemed to have tired of tormenting the owl.

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