A Great Tit was also singing in the Dell. Their song is monotonous but it does vary from bird to bird, and can have one to five notes in each repeated phrase.
A Long-Tailed Tit was too busy to sing, searching for insects in a blossoming hawthorn tree.
A Robin had found plenty for its nestlings. Most of these insects seem to be midges. I wonder how it catches them -- not apparently by seizing them in midair like a wagtail.
A Pied Wagtail on the edge of the Serpentine was looking for more sedentary prey, and ran right past my feet.
This is one of the pair of Coal Tits in the Rose Garden coming down to the feeder.
The white-faced Blackbird near the Italian Garden came out to be fed, but has got bored with digestive biscuits. I will get her some raisins.
The male Mistle Thrush of the pair near the Serpentine Gallery was singing from a treetop.
A Carrion Crow beside the Serpentine had won a Cheesy Wotsit. I looked up the firm's web site and was relieved to see that they do actually contain cheese, and that the alarming colour is done with paprika rather than Sunset Yellow FCF.
The Coots at the bridge were attending to their new clutch of eggs.
A Mute Swan was pointlessly making a nest on the path in the middle of the east entrance to the Lido. Swan's seem unable to resist the temptation to rip up and arrange plants, just as Coots can never stop adding twigs to their nests.
Here are Blondie's five goslings, all in good order after two of them went missing yesterday. Blondie's mate is seeing off a Coot.
The female Little Owl at the Albert Memorial was at the back of her hole. But she was visible enough. A mother and a little girl came past and asked what I was photographing, and the sight of this lovely bird made their day.
Lower down in the same tree a Mandarin drake was preening. His mate is nesting in a hole in the adjacent plane tree.
Cheesy Wotsits- who knew. Practically health food .
ReplyDeleteIt seems odd to use real ingredients to make something that looks so totally artificial.
DeleteGreat to hear about the little girl's delighted reaction to seeing the Little Owl. I confess I am a bit worried about young people's general lack of interest in birding.
ReplyDeleteThat Wren looks as if it was fanning itself with its own wings into a singing inferno.
A lot of the children in the park seem genuinely interested in birds. It's encouraging.
DeleteGreat pictures of the furious Wren Ralph!
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering how you made the Great Crested Grebe picture at the top of the screen behind the title. I was going to do the same to my blog but couldn't figure out how at all.
Thanks
It's a template called Picture Window. You get a space into which you can insert your picture, which of course has to be cropped to fit. But it's not difficult.
DeleteThanks Ralph
DeleteI'll try that today!