Thursday 23 November 2017

A Magpie was behaving like a woodpecker, clinging to an overhanging tree trunk. It dug out a larva from the bark.


A female Blackbird hauled up a worm on the edge of the Dell.


A female Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge of the Serpentine Road.


Flocks of Long-Tailed Tits ranged all over the park.


A Cormorant fishing in the Italian Garden got tired of one pool and went off to find another.


A Grey Heron on the parapet of the Serpentine bridge waited for a chance to cross the road at low level.


A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine was ruffled by the gusty wind. Their feathers are so perfectly waterproof that they can be blown around when the grebe has just surfaced.


A Robin in the Rose Garden was buffeted by the wind but kept on singing.


The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was at the back of the hole in the oak tree, lit from above because there is a hole in the top of the branch.


I went to St James's Park again to see how the Black Swan's romance was doing, and was glad to see that the pair were back together.


A Little Grebe fished busily among floating leaves.


A Cormorant perched strangely in a treetop. I would have liked to see it land in this difficult spot for a bird with flat webbed feet.


It was impossible to shoot any video in St James's Park because the Royal Navy was paying a visit to the Guards barracks in Birdcage Walk. The crew left the engine of their Wildcat helicopter running wastefully for half an hour.


Between the two parks, in Green Park, the Canadian war memorial has sloping stone surfaces with water running down them. They are carved with maple leaves, echoed by the fallen leaves of the London plane trees.

13 comments:

  1. Good news about the Black Swan couple
    Following yesterday’s discussion about the Bar Headed Geese: the Hybrid and one of the geese behind him are a pair. Over the last three years, they have brought up 4 goslings. This year’s gosling is also in the line. The other bird may be one of the previous years’ goslings.

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    1. Confused. Are you saying that the hybrid is fertile?

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    2. I have also seen the hybrid and the bar-headed goose with goslings over the last couple of years

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    3. It's remarkable. I suppose Greylag and Bar-Headed are both of the same genus (Anser anser and A. indicus), and thus more closely related than the Greylag--Canada (x Branta canadensis we have in the park, which really do seem to be sterile. That is, if the genus Branta is not just an ornithologists' conveninence.

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  2. Yes, he must be. I’ve watched the pair bring up goslings over the last few years. After the downy stage, the youngsters look more like their father with grey colouring. Gradually, they develop full Bar-Headed Goose plumage. In your picture, this year’s youngster is the bird at the rear

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. I had been wondering about the one at the back, with a slightly speckled head.

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  3. Leaving a helicopter running for nothing for half an hour- appalling.

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    1. And with the forces so underfunded now.

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    2. I have noticed that Trooping the Colour seems to be saving money: far fewer aircraft flying by these last several years.

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    3. That's all that's left of the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm going over.

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  4. I am amazed by the Cormorant video. In Spain cormorants, even when flying very high, will make an U-turn if they catch sight of any human.

    Magpies are such ingenuous, crafty creatures!

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    1. The Cormorants in the park are pretty indifferent to people. It took so long to cross between the pools that I had to cut half a minute out of the middle of the video clip.

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