Its unsuspected sibling was a mile away at the far end of the Serpentine, eating grass under the solicitous eyes of its parents.
The Black Swan was with his girlfriend in an invisible place on the Long Water, and I only saw them as I was going home, when they emerged and cruised under the bridge.
A pair of Great Crested Grebes made a brief excursion ashore on the south side of the Serpentine. They are really not at home on the land.
The Coots nesting in the middle of the Long Water have managed to make quite an imposing structure, considering that it is anchored to a submerged branch by a couple of thin twigs. They were lining it with grass.
But I still think that it will come adrift and break up the next time there is a strong wind.
The Reed Warbler in the reed bed near the bridge was also very hard to see, as Reed Warblers usually are, but he was singing fit to bust and eventually there was a brief glimpse of him through the reed stems.
There was also a Reed Warbler singing at the north end of the Long Water, plus the usual one in the reeds near the Diana fountain.
There are a lot of young Pied Wagtails. Yesterday David Element took this fine picture of two with their father on the edge of the Round Pond.
And this is one of two that were running along the edge of the Serpentine, already hunting for their own insects. It decided to have a rest, and was not worried about being photographed.
Last year's young Grey Wagtail was hunting from the netting over the reed bed north of the bridge.
A Robin was collecting insects and grubs for its nestlings near the Lido.
The male Little Owl came out on his favourite branch of the chestnut tree when the morning rain stopped.
He perched in the classic Athenian tetradrachm pose.
I'm showing this picture (with all due credit given, of course) the next time some student or other confidently states that the barn owl was Athene's bird.
ReplyDeleteI always carry a reproduction of one of these tetradrachms in my pocket. The other side has a beautiful head of the goddess.
DeleteAnd the next time someone insists that internet service provider AOL was first founded in 1983 I will show them the same image. :-)
DeleteThank you for another great blog post. The Canada gosling exhibiting a cygnet behavior, when there are no other cygnet's around to model the behavior yet, is a fantastic interesting behavior that you have captured. I can't wait to hear more.
ReplyDeletePuzzled by this too. Maybe it just saw a shining white hill and felt the urge to climb it.
DeleteOne could almost imagine that an animal behaviouralist in pursuit of a new PhD research project had deliberately re-housed that experimental gosling. Will they raise it to maturity do you think?
DeleteD'Arcy Thompson's 'Glossary of Greek Birds’ has a couple of pages on the γλαύξ on the tetradrachm (which he too identifies as ‘Athena noctua’, the little owl). Such owls have been common in the area round Athens since the time of Aristophanes (as reported in his thoroughly on-message play, ‘The Birds’). Aristophanes reports a ‘Battle of Owls and Crows’, which Thompson identifies as an Oriental theme; however it surely owes just as much to the sort of mobbing behaviour Ralph frequently documents . . . Thompson also records that little owls steal milk from ewes; another good reason to reintroduce sheep to Hyde Park, so that this can be properly verified!
ReplyDeleteHow on earth would a little owl milk a ewe?
DeleteIt would be good to see the return of the sheep. But modern dog owners are so irresponsible that it would be asking for a massacre.
Goats might stage a better defence and attract "goatsucker" nightjars to the Park perhaps?
Delete"They bee night-theeves; for all the day long they see not. Their manner is to come into the sheepeheards coats and goat-pens, and to the goats udders presently they goe, and suck the milke at their teats."
(1601 translation of Pliny)
Absolutely. Let's fill this town with goats.
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