Thursday 25 August 2016

The Tufted duckling hasn't been visible for several days, but I think this is it with its mother, photographed on the island from the opposite shore 200 yards away. The plastic fence makes it even harder to see what's going on. You can't even see what's there with binoculars, and the only thing to do is to take pictures of where they might be, and blow them up.


A Magpie perched on the edge of the little stream in the Dell, idly watching the ripples made by the big carp just under the surface.


Its presence had driven the Moorhen family up the waterfall, where all five of the chicks were swimming around -- I could only get four into this picture.


Then have no difficulty walking up waterfalls with their agility and huge feet. But, as this picture of a Moorhen chick in the Italian Garden shows, its remarkable that they don't get their toes tangled when they run.


Here are two of the new Coot chick from the boathouse, bizarre looking creatures but irresistible to Coot parents, which feed them devotedly.


Great Crested Grebe chicks are beautiful from the moment they hatch.


Young Starlings go through an awkward in-between phase when changing from their juvenile brown to adult plumage. This one was waiting in the bushes at the Lido restaurant, hoping for the chance to do a bit of scavenging.


The young Greylags are still with their Canada Goose foster parents. And they are still having a hard time from the gander of the other pair of Canadas that goes around this this family. He chased one of them away, but it's used to him and came back immediately.


The lone Mute cygnet was on its own again, with no trace of its Black Swan guardian. No one I spoke to had seen the Black Swan today. Yesterday the two were reunited in the late afternoon.


The male Little Owl near the Albert Memorial stared down through a screen of oak twigs.


One of the adults near the leaf yard -- from this angle I can't tell which -- was in the field maple tree on the edge of the leaf yard. This awkward shot was taken from almost directly below.


The large and noisy family of Wrens in the Dell are hard to see, but occasionally you get a glimpse of one hopping around under the plants.

2 comments:

  1. Baby Coots - a face only a mother could love! (a mother and all of us, too).

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