Saturday 29 April 2017

One of the Grey Herons nesting on the island broke off a twig ...


... flew up to the nest ...


... delivered the twig ...


... and perched above the nest so that it could admire its three young, two of which can be seen in this picture.


In the water below, it was changeover time at the Great Crested Grebes' nest. The eggs should be hatching any time now.


The grebes with the nest near the bridge have still not settled down, and may now wait till midsummer, when there are more small fish to feed the chicks. They were fishing together over the baskets of twigs, which still contain plenty of perch in spite of the efforts of the Cormorants.


Every year Coots nest under the floor of the westernmost of the two small boathouses. It's a good sheltered place and they always raise some chicks successfully. This place can be seen only from the water side, and the photograph comes thanks to the people at Bluebird Boats, who gave me a ride to see it.


A group of Red-Crested Pochards were feeding in one of the Italian Garden ponds, a place I have never seen them before. They are vegetarians. There are submerged plants as well as algae in these ponds.


Blondie's goslings now have most of their adult plumage, apart from their flight feathers which come out last.


The Lido was open for public swimming for the first time today, but it is still quite chilly and there didn't seem to be any takers. But closing the gates has brought peace to the birds, and a Grey Wagtail could be seen under the bushes on the edge of the water, looking from the Lido restaurant terrace.


These bushes belong to the Lido, not to the restaurant, so they have escaped being grubbed up in the ugly redevelopment at the restaurant which has destroyed the habitat of so many birds.

A young Mistle Thrush was calling from a lime tree near the Serpentine Gallery ...


... while its parents were searching on the ground for worms to bring it.


Dunnocks are so unobtrusive that you generally don't notice them, and then they turn up in unexpected places. This one was at the end of one of the pedestrian tunnels under the bridge.


Long-Tailed Tits are much easier to find, because they call incessantly. They are all over the park collecting insects for their nestlings.


The male Little Owl near the leaf yard was perched on the small branch which is his current favourite place.

7 comments:

  1. Hi, where exactly is the leaf yard and where in the leaf yard can I find the owl? I want to take pictures.

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    1. The leaf yard is the square enclosure which has the statue of Peter Pan on its east side overlooking the Long Water. The Little Owl is in a very old and broken sweet chestnut tree about midway along the south side and 30m from the edge of the leaf yard.

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    2. Thanks! What about the owl near the Albert Memorial?
      Will they be easy to find?

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    3. See the blog entry for 22 January – there's a map. But she wasn't there when I went past this morning.

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    4. Sorry, 21 January, second post for this day. Previous reply was written on a mobile, so I couldn't check.

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    5. Thanks, I was able to find its face peeking out last night. I walk through the park everyday. So, this will become my routine.

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    6. Excellent. Glad you were able to find it.

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