Saturday 1 April 2017

The pair of Green Woodpeckers on the Vista near the leaf yard have been calling more and more, but are still hard to find. I finally managed to see one of them in a plane tree.


The Wrens at the east end of the Serpentine are also more heard than seen, but one appeared on a stem on one of the reed rafts.


A Grey Heron from the lowest nest on the island was at the bottom of the nest tree breaking off a twig to add to the nest.


It flew up and presented the twig to its mate before they changed places on the nest.


There was a small drama at the Lido. The Egyptian Geese there had led their three goslings on to the swimmers' jetty, and one of them had fallen off and couldn't get back. It was swimming around peeping pathetically and its mother was calling it to no avail.


Egyptian Geese are not enormously intelligent, but eventually she realised what to do and came back down the jetty to the land side.


And the gosling, which had been following her, jumped up and joined the others.


Blondie was keeping a much closer watch over her brood.


At the Round Pond, the family had had to take to the water, as usual because of a dog running loose, and were in the classic formation with the mother at the front and the father at the back which gives the greatest safety to the goslings.


The pair of Mute Swans who nested at the west end of the reed bed near the Diana fountain were excited about their first egg.


A pair of Canada Geese are thinking of nesting just under the balustrade of the Italian Garden, in a place in the reeds already trampled down by the swans before they decided to nest on the little island. It's not a wonderful place -- like anywhere on the shore, it's vulnerable to foxes -- but they may get away with it.


All the wandering Mandarin drakes have come back to the Long Water and could be seen near Peter Pan.


There were no females. This may mean that they are already nesting in tree holes, leaving the males to form a rowdy boys' club and spend the day chasing each other.

Three Red Crested Pochards flew past the balcony of the Dell restaurant before settling in their favourite place in the corner of the lake.


We need to have a picture of a Robin every now and then. This is one of several in the long shrubbery along the east side of the Long Water. It spent some time on my hand, eating six pine nuts.


The male Little Owl looked out of the oak tree near the Albert Memorial.

6 comments:

  1. Any news on the identity of the spiders web yet ??......

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    Replies
    1. No. It looks like a labyrinth spider web, but they're not supposed to be active till June.

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    2. More evidence of global warming?... I was lucky enough to see 2 kingfishers on the same branch yesterday !... Quite a site !.. Best regards.

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  2. A site as well as a sight, i should say !!...

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    Replies
    1. Central London is 2°C warmer than the surrounding countryside, so strange things happen there. Anyway, I know almost nothing about spiders.

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  3. I should say that the 2 kingfishers were not seen in london .. The spiders would not survive up here !.....

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