Tuesday 14 August 2018

There had been no Jackdaws at the leaf yard for several weeks, but today five of them turned up to ask for peanuts. They are looking less smart than usual, and are evidently moulting.


The female Kestrel appeared briefly over Buck Hill.


When I went back later to try to get some more pictures she wasn't there, so I went over the road to the Meadow to try to find her. No luck with that, but a dozen House Martins were still here, hunting insects high over the grass.


Although the berries on the rowan trees on Buck Hill are still unripe, Feral Pigeons don't mind and several were eating fallen fruit.


A pigeon at the Dell restaurant took advantage of a sunny spell to bask in the middle of an aisle between the rows of tables, so that staff and customers had to step round it.


We haven't seen many Pied Wagtails recently, but a young one was running around in the Diana fountain enclosure.


The young Grey Herons on the island were having a quiet moment in the nest.


The number of Cormorants on the Long Water is steadily increasing. It will keep going up through the autumn until they have eaten so many of this year's young fish that they no longer think it's worth coming.


This pair of Great Crested Grebes at the east end of the Serpentine couldn't find a place to nest, so they have no chicks to make a fuss of. But, as grebe couples are, they are clearly happy to be together.


One of the young grebes from the family at the bridge was resting under the willow tree.


This chick from the nest in the Long Water reed bed, although not yet fully grown, seems to be larger than its parent.


The Coot chick that fell down the weir was in the nest being fed by its parents. As usual, one parent brings the food and passes it to the one on the nest.


The Coot on the right was trying to mate with the one on the left, but she wasn't in the mood.


His ring is the result of a project by Bill Haines to ring the park coots and trace their movements. One has already been reported over a hundred miles away.

One of the Moorhen chicks from the nest under the platform of Bluebird Boats is already going into its teenage brown stage.


The Tufted Duck with thirteen ducklings cruised past the island. They are a very orderly brood and keep close to their mother, which accounts for their survival.

2 comments:

  1. Love the little flotilla of tufted ducklings, always so orderly and so nimble.

    Whoever claims animals have no feelings ought to take a gander at Grebe couples. If that is not love I don't know what it is.

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    1. With grebes it's not just love, it's courtly love. Even if a mate has been on the other side of the island for ten minutes, there's a greeting ceremony.

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