A Herring Gull was pecking at a stone and turning it over. But this was not one of the young gulls playing. It was an adult, looking to see if there was anything edible among the algae.
A Moorhen was doing the same with another stone. There were at least twenty pieces of stone on the south shore of the Serpentine, all of them picked out of the water by young Herring Gulls to play with.
Two Black-Headed Gulls did their display of defiance, holding their wings akimbo to make them look larger, and bowing and calling. But they weren't defying at each other, as often seen. They were a pair displaying together at the other gulls, and when one came too near the pair united to chase it away.
Since we've had three of the four gulls commonly seen on the lake, here's the fourth one, a Common Gull staring at the camera near Bluebird Boats.
A descending Mute Swan water-skied its way to a standstill in front of the Diana fountain reed bed.
All the Shovellers seem to have flown away except for this one, which was preening at the island.
The pale Mallard came under the bridge with his mate and the other drake that goes around with them. These trios of two males and a female seem to be very common among Mallards which, like many ducks, have a very skewed sex ratio.
A long row of Starlings were washing on the shore near the Dell restaurant.
A Mistle Thrush sang on a tree overlooking the Rose Garden.
A Wren was looking for bugs on a rose bush, probably a rich source of aphids even in winter.
And the usual Robin waited on the bench for the pigeons to go away and give it a chance to look for birdseed under the feeder.
The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was preening.
... and when I passed the Dell restaurant in mid-afternoon, as in your report on 5th January the pigeon carcase was being finished off by yet another gull, again with the original pair nowhere to be seen. This one had grey legs and, as with your previous observation, was attacking so ravenously it must have been an opportunistic go at the remnants and not its own kill. Strange that the female doesn't finish off the remnants?
ReplyDeleteThe Lesser Black-Back with grey legs has been seen twice with a freshly killed pigeon which it had evidently caught itself, but it is not nearly as good at hunting as the original pigeon killer, and is always glad to do a bit of scavenging. I think that the original killer and his mate can't quite manage to eat an entire pigeon in one go. There are always leavings on the carcase which other birds go for.
DeleteTypo: Black-headed gulls too near?
ReplyDeleteWhoops. Thank you. Changed.
DeleteNow Pontius Pilate will be turning in his grave. ;) Also there was Saturday's Green Woodpcker, thought you'd gone all hillbilly!
Delete- Jim n.L.
DeleteI think an occasional typo is allowable after four or five hours tramping around the park and two more spent choosing and editing pictures. And who forgot to sign his comment, then? That's Muphry's Law [sic]: Any correction will inevitably include a mistake.
DeleteYou are heroic, Ralph. Sometimes we don't get the scope of how much effort you spend in keeping this wonderful blog running.
DeleteIt's been said before, but it never hurts to repeat it: thank you so very much for your excellent work.
Thanks, that's very kind of you. But I only do this blog because I enjoy it.
DeleteI hope it goes without saying that it's all affectionate Ralph. I wouldn't be tuning in every day if it wasn't a great viewing and read. Jim
DeleteNo worries. But 'hillbilly' did rankle a bit.
DeleteI meant "Woodpcker" reads the way an American hillbilly/country redneck might pronounce the word. Jim
DeleteΡαὴλφ αὖ κλέφτες ἡγήσατο βαρβαροφώνων, as Homer didn't quite put it (Iliad, II.867).
ReplyDeleteAm I now leading a band of robbers?
DeleteIf we are to believe the old anthropology cliché, don't you steal a (bird's) soul when you take a photograph? And we followers, by proxy, looking at your photos . . .?
ReplyDelete