Wednesday 26 September 2018

A few more Shovellers have arrived on the Long Water. This drake is growing his breeding plumage.


A female spun endlessly to stir up food that she could filter out of the water. It makes you dizzy just to look at her.


The line of Cormorants on the posts at Peter Pan was broken only by one of the young Grey Herons.


Sunlight made a rainbow in the spray from the fountain in the Italian Garden as a Moorhen probed the algae for edible bugs.


One the young Great Crested Grebes from the island was silent for once, and dozing peacefully.


The young Lesser Black-Backed Gull begged piteously as its father, the notorious pigeon killer, ignored it and swam away. The young bird is perfectly able to feed itself, but still pretends to be helpless in spite of never getting a result.


The small birds in the leaf yard are noticeably hungrier, and there was a good turnout. Both Nuthatches came down to the fence to take food ...


... and the Coal Tit lurked nervously in the background.


A Wren probed for insects in a hole in a big old oak.


A Pied Wagtail on the north shore of the Serpentine was doing well, catching a crane fly ...


... and what may be a pupa in the space of less than a minute.


There was just one Mistle Thrush in the rowan trees on Buck Hill ...


... but a fair-sized flock of Long-Tailed Tits moving through the trees at the foot of the hill.


A Goldcrest flitted past in a garden square just north of Victoria Gate, which is where the North and West Carriage Drives emerge into the Bayswater Road.

4 comments:

  1. Is the Long-tailed Tit looking at the camera? It looks as if it does.

    After watching the shoveller I feel the need to sit down.

    "Moorhen and rainbow" would be a good subject for a Charles Tunnicliffe painting.

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    1. Yes, I think the Long_Tailed Tit was curious about this human capering around under the tree with a large black machine trying to get a clear shot. They are not shy, and find humans irrelevant most of the time.

      I could hardly stand after looking through the viewfinder at the revolving Shoveller for two minutes. I cut the resulting video down to the whirliest bit.

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  2. Hi Ralph. In the first pic of the wagtail it has caught a crane-fly. In the second the prey looks like a crane-fly emerging from pupa, showing the halteres symmetrically. Or is there some other explanation? Always a pleasure to tune in. Jim

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