Thursday 29 September 2016

The young Grey Heron that was rescued is recovering its confidence . It was walking along the edge of the Dell restaurant terrace looking for food scraps.


A young Great Crested Grebe and its father were fishing together on the Serpentine. The chick wasn't begging; it was helping, or trying to help. They didn't catch anything while I was there, and probably the young grebe was more of a hindrance that a help. But it shows that the young ones are growing up.


A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull had found a packet of Frazzles (crispy bacon flavour, if you were wondering) and, after tipping out and eating the remaining contents, was playing with it.


An adult thought there was still food in the packet, drove the young one off, and grabbed it.


But finding there was nothing left, it threw down the packet and flew away. It is only young gulls that play with things.

Another Lesser Black-Back seized a peanut that I had thrown to a Carrion Crow. Puzzled as to how to eat it, it dropped it, but still prevented the crow from getting near it.


The crow walked round the back of the gull, jumped over its head and seized the peanut. The move took me (as well as the gull) completely by surprise, so this is a rotten picture.


Some Black-Headed Gulls whizzed around trying to catch bits of bread that someone was throwing in the air.


This Canada Goose had been given some grapes. It ate one, didn't like it much, and left the rest.


The gulls weren't interested either. But Blackbirds and Rose-Ringed parakeets love grapes.

A Wood Pigeon was eating laurel berries near the bridge.


The cherry laurel (not related to the bay tree, which is sometimes called a laurel) is well known to be highly poisonous, and I was surprised. but I looked it up, and see that the poisonous part of the berries is the stones. Presumably, as with yew berries, the stones pass through the bird's quick-moving digestive system untouched, so the poison doesn't get out.

The weather brightened after early rain, and lunchtime brought people to the terrace of the Lido restaurant. The resident Starlings understand about lunchtime and the effect of sunny weather, and were waiting expectantly on the railings and the roof.


The Nuthatches in the leaf yard also have a good understanding of feeding time, and were coming down to the railings to take food.


The female Little Owl was a few yards away in the nest tree.


There was the usual queue for the bath in the Italian Garden.


If a pigeon takes too long bathing, the next one  comes down and chases it off.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting that the pigeons should have a sense of fairness about bathing time. You would think that they would just line up in order of dominance and then each would take as long as it liked unless a more dominant bird turned up mid-bath. Jim.

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    Replies
    1. Simple impatience on the park of the bird at the head of the queue, rather than fairness? Perhaps pigeons only need to bathe for a certain time, and more would make them too soggy? Anyway, the queue does move, and doesn't seem to be stopped by a dominant bird taking longer to bathe.

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  2. Really enjoyed these narratives and photos...

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