Friday 21 September 2018

A flock of Starlings settled in the rowan trees on Buck Hill. The fine crop of fruit is not getting as much attention as you might expect, and there are few of the usual Mistle Thrushes.


A Wood Pigeon reached down for a hawthorn berry. A fraction of a second after I took this picture it fell out of the tree and fluttered ignominiously to the ground.


There was a Goldcrest in the yew tree near the bridge.


House Martins streaked low over the lake. When banking steeply they keep their head horizontal, unlike the human pilot of an aircraft.


The young Lesser Black-Backed Gull that is the offspring of the pigeon-killer played with a leaf.


A Great Crested Grebe caught a fish at the bridge.


One of the young grebes from the west end of the island was on the disused Coot nest when a Red-Crested Pochard drake went by, now almost in full breeding plumage.


A female Shoveller went past Peter Pan.


There is still some duckweed left in the Italian Garden fountains, and the Mallards are glad of it.


One of the four teenage Moorhens was also eating it.


The sad end of a Migrant Hawker dragonfly which hovered too close to a young Grey Heron. David Element caught this dramatic shot.


The shire horses were out early on Buck Hill cutting grass for the bankers to fork up later. It's always good to see bankers doing an honest day's work -- and paying for the privilege.


These pretty flowers on the hill are Field Bindweed.

12 comments:

  1. The dragonfly photo hasn't loaded properly. I'd be keen to see it; I once saw an ovipositing female Emperor Dragonfly, dabbing eggs on the fringes of the Round Pond, fly that bit too close to a Coot standing near its customary nest on that little platform just-off-shore. The Coot reached over, caught the insect, bit it in half, ate one half and took the other half round to its mate. Very uxorious, I thought; the capture hadn't been seen and it could easily have eaten the whole thing.

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    1. The picture looked OK to me, but I've now deleted and reloaded it. Hope that solves the problem. Sorry not to have done it sooner -- was out all day.

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  2. The bindweed looks like Field Bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis.

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    1. This surely calls for a link to the Misalliance song. Jim

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    2. I actually saw them perform that, when the world was young.

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    3. Wow, those are gigs to have been at. Jim.

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    4. Turns out my mother saw them perform that as well, and if we hadn't had this exchange I might never have found out/remembered that. Jim.

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  3. Where are the horses housed? There isn't enough for them to do , just working the park, is there?

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    1. They are brought in from somewhere in a horsebox. I don't think these beautiful creatures are subjected to much of a work schedule.

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  4. Whoever came up with the scheme of making bankers work manually and pay for it ought to be given a Nobel prize or something.

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