It rained steadily all morning. A Blackbird carried some dripping wet twigs to a late nest. Perhaps the pair had lost their first brood and were trying again.
That is certainly what happened to the Coots nesting on the basket near the bridge. They are stubbornly producing a second clutch of eggs.
Glad to say that the three Greylag goslings survived the attack by the Mute Swan yesterday, and were grazing on the edge of the Serpentine as if nothing had happened.The one that was seized has no visible injuries.
The new Egyptian Goose family near the Dell restaurant were examining a patch of windblown scum.
This Lesser Black-Backed Gull is coming up to its third summer and has grown some of its adult dark grey plumage. Its eyes are changing from brown to the pale green that gives adults that cruel gaze.
A one-year-old Grey Heron, just beginning to get its adult white face, looked for perch in one of the Italian Garden ponds. There aren't many, as the herons and Cormorants have eaten most of them, but quite a few large carp remain.
A gang of Mallard drakes were trotting around on the grass near the leaf yard.
A preening Red-Crested Pochard added a bit of colour to a dull day.
The weather brought the flying insects down low over the water, and the Swifts came down to chase them.
A Dunnock prowled around in the shadows under the bushes in the leaf yard, among a litter of twigs and small branches brought down by the wind.
On a bush at Peter Pan, a damp young Blue Tit called for food.
The weather brightened up in the afternoon, and a sunny spell gave a view of the Great Crested Grebes' nest on the fallen poplar in the Long Water.
The male Little Owl came out of his hole for a few minutes, but he didn't like the wind and quickly went back inside.
For newer readers of Ralph's blog, you might enjoy a November 2016 YouTube of his with some more history of the Rose-ringed Parakeets in Kensington Gardens here https://youtu.be/3e0EdaURacA
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the link. By the way, all the videos of the park made by Johanna, as well as my short clips, can be found on my YouTube channel here.
DeleteGreat news about the goslings!
Delete"Stubborn" is every Coot's middle name, it seems.
The wind sounds so scary (and I am not alone in feeling this, judging from the parakeets' faces). I'm not used to its howling like that. I shudder to think what the dead of winter might be like.
There was a stronger gale a few months ago which brought down some trees. But it was nothing to the storm in 1987 when the wind in central London reached 150 km/h. I went out to buy a newspaper and found I could only get down the street by holding on to the railings.
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