Friday 30 September 2016

A shower brought a flock of Mistle Thrushes on to the grass on Buck Hill to pull up worms.


For the Great Crested Grebes with younger chicks it was the endless duty of catching fish for them. This parent was doing well on the Long Water near the Italian Garden, catching three perch in five minutes which all disappeared into the ravenous youngster.


An more advanced youngster on the Serpentine was fishing at the edge, and cheekily surfaced under a Coot. It was chased away by the angry Coot.


Not in the slightest alarmed, it immediately caught a crayfish and took it into the middle of the lake to eat it.


Grebes never tire of the game of coming up under other birds, and go on playing it as adults.

The buoys at the Lido were lines with Black-Headed Gulls. One of them struck a balletic pose.


But as soon as one gull gets a bit of Arab flatbread, all the others take off as one bird to chase it and make it drop the food.


One of the young Mute Swans from the nest on the reed raft was pecking at something just under the waterline. It brought up what I think was a snail.


A few feet away the young Grey Heron that was rescued was playing with a stick, dropping it into the water and lunging at it. As with gulls that play the same game, this is useful practice for its feeding strategy.


It was good to see the heron enjoying itself after its recent ordeal'

More Shovellers have arrived on the Long Water. I could see half a dozen but there may have been more under the bushes.


There was a rare glimpse of one of the Little Owls near the Albert Memorial, I think the female of the pair.


The female owl near the leaf yard had come down quite low in the uphill tree to enjoy the sunshine.


Honeybees are still busy. This one was on a purple flower in the Dell.

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