Saturday 4 November 2017

A welcome return: the female Little Owl has returned to the hole that they had to abandon when Carrion Crows nested in the top of the tree.


She was annoyed by a police helicopter and turned round to look at it. Sorry about the shaky video, shot handheld at an enormous zoom level.


David Element sent me this interesting picture taken yesterday of the Little Owl at the leaf yard coughing up a pellet. This consists of the inedible parts of her prey, such as the wing cases of beetles.


A Great Tit in the Rose Garden was picking seeds out of a cardoon head and flying to a bush to eat them.


This is the Robin on the east side of the Long Water who comes to take food from my hand. He was in a different place from usual, on a bramble on the other side of the path, and called to get my attention.


I had one last try to find the Firecrest in the nursery, but didn't get any response. As usual, there were lots of Goldcrests.


A Magpie started challengingly at the camera from a gatepost.


The Diana fountain is closed for maintenance, and is therefore full of all kinds of birds who enjoy its fenced-off seclusion. A Grey Heron played with a twig on the edge of the watercourse.


A rain-spattered Black Swan came charging over for his daily treat.


A young Mute Swan was mooching about in the shadows under the bridge.


A pair of Gadwalls rested at the edge of the Serpentine.


A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was still hard at work in the Dell despite the chilly drizzle.


There was a mass of little grey mushrooms around a tree stump near the Serpentine Gallery. I think they're Fairy Ink Caps, Coprinellus disseminatus.

4 comments:

  1. Lovely how the Robin calls to get your attention. It's almost as if it believed that you are its parent (my late very much lamented canary bird used to think I was his mother). I think you are much more to it than a convenient table!

    Alas for the bird who should cross the Black Swan's very rapid path when bird seed is at stake. He looks like a dreadnought.

    The female Little Owl, in keeping with her Queen Victoria-like demeanour, is clearly not amused.

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    1. The Black Swan pecked a Mute Swan out of his way, a moment I didn't catch as he was too close for the long lens.

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  2. I counted 28 Egyptian Geese at the Diana Fountain on Wednesday!

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    1. They are all flocking there, in spite of the water being turned off. The workmen are only there occasionally, in the manner of workmen. No humans, no dogs, lots of grass. No wonder they like it.

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