Tuesday 13 September 2016

No one I have spoken to has seen the Black Swan for two days now. For some time he has been engaged in a furious contest with the dominant Mute Swans on the Long Water, and it is not like him to give up and retreat. The adopted cygnet was by itself, eating leaves from a lime tree overhanging the Long Water, and crossed the lake to beg for a biscuit.


The young Mute Swans on the Long Water are continuing their attempts to fly. The one on the left got airborne for a moment, stalled and crashed. It's all good exercise for their wings.


A Mute Swan on the Serpentine was enjoying a vigorous wash.


A young Great Crested Grebe was closely pestering a parent for food. Sometimes when they get too demanding they get chased away, but the tolerant parent did actually start diving for a fish to give it.


The Moorhens who have built four nests in the stream in the Dell are using their newest nest as a place for adults to rest. The chicks don't go near it. They were at the other end of the stream with their other parent.


The male Little Owl from the leaf yard was in the chestnut tree just uphill from the nest tree.


The female was in the same tree on another branch.


Then they flew up to a higher branch and the male displayed in front of the female by holding his wings extended for at least a minute.


A Rose-Ringed Parakeet was chewing a stick near the leaf yard. There can't have been anything on the stick it would have wanted to eat, so it was probably just playing.


The grass was littered with sunbathing Feral Pigeons, in that attitude that makes it look as if they have crashed.


Some Mistle Thrushes were eating berries on the rowan tree on Buck Hill. Probably the ground is too dry for worms to be readily available.


A Common Darter dragonfly landed on a purple flower beside the little pool at the top of the Dell waterfall.

6 comments:

  1. Hello Ralph your purple flower looks like a type of Wallflower called Bowles Mauve. Amanda

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    1. Thanks. I'm hopeless about garden flowers. It's grown in the park greenhouses and at the right time of year there are yards of it in the Flower Walk.

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  2. Do you think that the Black Swan could be in season still and that might account for some of his aggressive behaviour. Several sources seem to indicate a longer nesting season for the Black Swans. See also https://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/V103_N03_P194%E2%80%93195_N.pdf

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    1. He's only in his second year and still pretty confused, I think. I note that the one in the British Birds article was also young -- note the black tips to his flight feathers, which our swan lost after his recent moult.

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  3. Any news about the Black Swan's whereabouts? Let's hope that he hasn't decided to abandon their devoted fans...

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    1. Nothing today again. If he doesn't show up soon I will check Regent's Park, where he might have gone.

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