Herons are very light for their size even by the standards of birds, weighing about 3lb on average. It seems odd that they need such enormous wings.
Later the heron went up to the edge of the Italian Garden and caught a perch.
A Mute Swan came charging down the Serpentine in a takeoff run.
No sooner had it got airborne than it changed its mind and came down again.
A Great Crested Grebe chick felt that its father wasn't feeding it fast enough, and gave him a sharp prod.
The adult is indisputably male, as you can see from his wide top crest. But there is a lot of overlap between the sexes and you can't always be sure.
A black lime tree neat the Dell restaurant was absolutely packed with Starlings.
A flight of Long-Tailed Tits made its way through the small trees on the edge of the Serpentine.
A Robin stared at the camera from a variegated holly bush in the Flower Walk.
The female Little Owl near the leaf yard was deep inside the chestnut tree. She looked rather irritably at me over the top of a branch and went back to sleep.
Otherwise it was rather a slow day, so here are three good photographs taken yesterday by Mike Meilack.
The female Kestrel was back in Kensington Gardens. A Magpie.stared at her impudently.
A Grey Wagtail perched on the wall of the Sunken Garden.
There are a lot of Dunnocks in the shrubberies here. This one cme out on the tarmac path, where its all-purpose camouflage makes it almost as inconspicuous as when it is in the dead leaves under a bush.
A very cheeky Grebe chick! I shouldn't think its father was very impressed
ReplyDeleteThe parents' growing indifference is all part of the process of making the young birds independent. Most of the teenage grebes on the lake are now able to catch their own fish, though they are not good at it yet and have to work harder than the practised adults.
DeleteThat Magpie has either some cheek, or a deathwish. They truly are something else.
ReplyDeleteMute Swans look like avian Antonov 225s: something that should not fly but does, and very well too (once they manage to take off without eating all of the runway, that is).
Something I have never seen is a male Great Bustard, even heavier than a Mute Swan, struggling into the air.
DeleteThey (in Spanish they are called avutardas, "slow birds") are actually quite common where I live and relatively easy to see if you know where to look for them. They take off relatively quickly - they take a couple of leaps and get airborn, like vultures. Very powerful flight, too, but then their wingspan is enormous. Once they are in the air though one realizes what a difficult engineering feat it was.
DeleteFunny how things are though - I can count on not so many fingers the number of times I have seen mute swans in my life.
I was in Spain for ten days in Andalusia , specifically Aracena north of Seville, birdwatching. I also had to practice my Spanish in Madrid for two days.
DeleteI didn't see any there, nor anything similar other than White Stork nests on Pylons!
Where can you see them? I will just hope that we go somewhere as exciting when I go again with school this summer again.
Arjun
Hi Arjun,
DeleteThe best place to see steppe birds (Great and Little Bustards, Pin-tailed Sandgrouses, Stone Curlews), and for birdwatching in general, is actually Extremadura.
We get many visitors from the UK and Northern and Central Europe, and there are good reliable English- speaking guides.
For steppe birds Trujillo is the best area (http://www.birdingintrujillo.com), and for raptors of all kinds and Black Storks nothing beats Monfragüe (http://www.birdwatching-spain.com/cubic/ap/cubic.php/doc/Bird-watching-in-Spain.-Monfrague-National-Park-331.html). If you like small birds, there is a myriad of different kinds of warblers as well. I hope you'll like it if you visit.
The Great Bustard's scientific name is Otis tarda, also suggesting that it's slow.
DeleteRalph, do you know about the young heron that has a thick piece of black hardened tart stuck on the top of his beek? They have been trying to catch him for two days in vain. This morning he helplessly tried to batter it against branches but it is firmly there. He is starving and cannot open his beek:/ we took some photos if you need.
ReplyDeleteSorry there is a typo meant to read tar* and not tart. I am not sure what else can be done. He was by the island today. Some people alerted a police van so they tried to call the wardens but as I said in my previous post they know about it.
ReplyDeleteOh God poor thing. I hope someone, anyone, can help him.
ReplyDeleteSee Friday's blog post. At least Malcolm is doing his best.
DeleteHello, Ralph.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog. I read it every day.
Curiously enough, the Great Bustard has been reintroduced to the UK. (The species became extinct in the UK in the mid-1840s). Since 2004, these magnificent birds (reared from Russian and Spanish eggs) have been released in England.
Regards, Justyna C.
It was actually a friend of my father's, Aylmer Tryon, who started the reintroduction project on Salisbury Plain. Progress has been slow and uncertain, and several restarts have been required.
DeleteRe herons' wing size. Firstly, larger flying creatures need proportionately larger wings to maintain their wing surface area:weight ratio as weight depends on body volume (a cube function of linear size). Opposite extremes include a hummingbird and a bee. Secondly, herons' wing size in relation to weight enables them to fly slowly or soar to look out for good feeding places e.g. wet meadow edges and well vegetated shallows, in the latter case to check the water is shallow enough to land in, and avoid wading about once landed which would help fish locate them. And also to look out for garden ponds. Swimming birds in contrast just need to find larger bodies of water and land away from dangerous banks. Jim n.L.
ReplyDeleteAnd also to take off vertically with one flap, I suppose. But so can Mallards, which weigh the same and have much smaller wings.
Delete