Saturday 31 December 2016

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was disturbed by a Carrion Crow trying to grab his lunch.


He chased the intruder off.


But the crow kept coming back, and managed to get quite a lot of meat.

A Cormorant and a Grey Heron stared at each other on the posts near the bridge.


They are not exactly rivals, since they have such different fishing methods and never come into direct conflict. But no doubt each one is envious when it sees the other catch a fish.

A Greylag Goose was enjoying a splashy bath.


One of the speckled Canada--Greylag hybrid geese was on the Serpentine, the first time I have seen one for several months.


They have been here on and off for at least a decade, and originally they were four siblings. One of them got some kind of disorder that made it wobbly and lame, and was killed by a fox. The fate of the other two is unknown.

A flight of Mallards came down on the Serpentine. Two of the drakes have the unusual dark brown coloration that affects several Mallards here. One has a white bib instead of a white neck band, the other no neck band at all.


The female Little Owl in the oak tree near the Albert Memorial was facing away, but turned her head round when I called to her.


The male owl in the lime tree near the Henry Moore sculpture was perched outside his hole.


While I was hopping around trying to find an angle from which he was not masked by twigs, a Robin stared at me curiously.


A flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked its way along the east side of the Long Water.


This is one of the pair of Coal Tits near the bridge, perched in a pink-stemmed ornamental bush. Both of them are extremely tame and come to my hand to be fed.


A kind-hearted visitor to the Dell restaurant put out a piece of leftover cake on a balcony table. It was instantly engulfed by Feral Pigeons, and vanished before the staff could clear away the plate.


A very happy New Year to all readers.

7 comments:

  1. Happy New Year to you, Ralph, and huge thanks for all your great photos and captions!

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  2. Happy New Year!
    Hopefully in the coming year our Tawny Owls return and more fascinating species are seen!

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  3. And. I echo Pauline's sentiments. I very much appreciate your daily blog and all the wisdom it contains. Thank you Ralph.

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  4. Happy New Year! Long may we continue to enjoy Ralph's wonderful blog, and its no less wonderful reader community.

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  5. Happy New Year to you, Ralph, Blogger "extraordinaire"!!! Thank you for the great photos you share AND for your SUPERB commentary. Thank you for what you do EVERY day to enable this Canadian reader's daily "fix" of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park through your eyes and camera lens. Bonne année du Canada!!!

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  6. ... all that and erudition and wit to boot. You spoil us. Many thanks and may 2017 bring even more interesting observations.

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  7. Thank you all very much. Let's hope the new year brings good things.

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