Sunday 6 May 2018

The Great Crested Grebes on the island still have their three chicks.


They wen't doing much when I went past, but Virginia got much better pictures of them, including a fight between one of them and one of the pair at the east end of the Serpentine.


The problem with feeding the chicks is that the fish are either too large ...


... or too small.


There was also a grebe by itself on the Round Pond.


The Egyptian Geese here now have five goslings, down two from yesterday. They were standing on a place where a Coot wanted to build a nest, and there was a face-off but no actual fighting.


Several Lesser Black-Backed Gulls circled menacingly over them.


The Coots nesting at the outflow of the Serpentine have no problem keeping Greylag Geese away from their nest, but Mute Swans are more difficult.


The swans on the little island in the Long Water still haven't hatched any of their eggs. You can just see an egg in this picture of the female poking around in the nest.


Elizabeth was in Regent's Park and got a picture on her mobile phone of the first Mandarin duckling of the year.


Starlings were carrying food to their nestlings. These two were at the Round Pond, carrying an insect ...


... and a bit of wholemeal bread.


The Long-Tailed Tits are also nesting, and we aren't seeing so much of them. But one appeared beside the Long Water.


One of the Mistle Thrushes near the Albert Memorial was feeling hot, and stood with its beak open. It was hopping around more slowly than usual.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the good piece of news that the chicks made it till today. With each passing day their chances of survival increase, I hope.

    That fight looks vicious. And yet, Grebes look so tranquil and collected usually.

    Coots are really something. It takes some real guts to stand up (or float up) to a swan, even if the swan is paying no more heed to you than it would an amoeba.

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    Replies
    1. At least the grebe parents are trying hard, and that's the best we can hope for.

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