After it had gone, the owl emerged, looking quite calm. It's all part of an owl's life.
The rescued young Grey Heron flew down from its usual place on the raft into the Dell for a bit of fishing in the stream.
It was surrounded by the usual rubbish. I do hope it will have the sense to avoid this, especially the Coca-Cola can. A couple of years ago a goose got a ring-pull can stuck on its bill.
Two young Great Crested Grebes were fishing together on the Serpentine, breaking off occasionally to practise their head-shaking greeting ritual.
Their father looked on, relieved at being left in peace after the long labour of feeding them.
A Greylag Goose was having a very energetic wash.
At the Dell restaurant, someone was feeding the Mute Swans curry and rice out of a spoon. The swans seemed happy with this. It certainly saves you from getting bitten.
A gust of wind gave a young Moorhen a Marilyn Monroe moment.
The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull's mate was eating a freshly caught victim.
The male gull was some way along the shore by himself, looking for another pigeon. Usually he shares his kills with his mate, but wouldn't give her a whole pigeon. I wonder whether she caught it herself. I have seen her having a go at this.
A Wood Pigeon was eating hawthorn berries at the foot of Buck Hill.
A Starling at the Lido restaurant decided to head south.
The two Nuthatches came down to take seeds from the railings of the leaf yard.
A clump of amaryllis has unexpectedly emerged at the corner of the Dell. A bee was rolling around in one of the flowers, as if intoxicated by the nectar.
Hi Ralph, I am feeling a little perplexed about the dead goose possibly torn by a fox. I tried to do some research and foxes can swim indeed but will only resort to swim if starving for food. It's not winter yet and such behaviour has not been recorded in any other parks yet. I was wondering maybe the goose died a few weeks back and gulls and herons, crows and magpies had a go at it? There were a couple of sick Canada geese around lately ( digestive problems related to parasites ) and one of them have not been seen for about a week now. Sadly it was the father of the goslings who raised the 3 adopted greylags too. I am obviously quite upset but he got unwell and left the flock, feathers were quite manky and he struggled to eat but still took some. Last time he was seen was about a week ago as mentioned before.
ReplyDeleteYou may very well be right -- I simply don't know. The picture on the blog gives all the information I have. With a blown-up photograph taken with a long lens you get more detail than through binoculars, but the dead goose was still quite a long way off. It looked to me as if the head had been ripped off, not something that a corvid could manage with a big goose, and that was why I guessed it was a fox.
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