Monday 24 September 2018

One of the pair of Peregrines from the Metropole Hilton hotel perched on the 300 ft tower of the Household Cavalry barracks.


It looked around before flying off.


The still picture was taken with my Pentax 450mm zoom lens, and is a 1000 x 750 crop out of the middle of the image. The video was taken with the 2000mm zoom of the Nikon Coolpix 900. It can reach farther, but it isn't nearly as sharp.

A Cormorant struggled to keep its balance on a chain as it tried to jump on to a post.


A young Grey Heron had no difficulty at all in getting on to a post. Even at an early age they are masters of precise slow flying.


A pair of Egyptian Geese washed and preened in the Serpentine. When one scratched the right side of its face with a foot, the other copied it. Such mirroring of action is common between mates.


A Mistle Thrush perched in one of the rowan trees on Buck Hill.


Later, as I crossed the hill, a pair of Meadow Pipits dashed overhead and disappeared into a tree. I know they were Meadow Pipits because I checked their call on my smartphone. But I couldn't get a picture, so here is an excellent one taken by Paul some time ago.


A Robin sang in a tree at the foot of the hill.


Both Nuthatches in the leaf yard came down to the fence to be fed.


So, after an agony of indecision, did the very shy Coal Tit. It has never overcome its fear of people, unlike the pair at the bridge, which come to my hand again and again.


Long-Tailed Tits flew through the holly tree in in the shrubbery next to the bridge.


A tatty female Blackbird poked around in the leaf litter underneath. She's overdue to renew her moulted feathers.


Several Carrion Crows landed on the bridge parapet, expecting peanuts.


A male Common Darter dragonfly sunned himself on the kerb of one of the Italian Garden pools ...


... and a female did the same on a dead leaf just outside the railings.


The statue group representing Asia on the Albert Memorial has a sunflower growing in it.

4 comments:

  1. I love the dash of living yellow in the midst of all that grey stone.

    The Coal Tit may be pathologically timid, but at least it does follow you around and wait for you, doesn't it?

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    1. Coal Tits are inordinately fond of pine nuts. Their preferred habitat is pine trees, where they prise the seeds out of the cones. The German for Coal Tit is Tannenmeise, 'pine tit'. Nevertheless, it takes several minutes and a lot of pine nuts to get the little creature to dare to come down to the fence, while the larger birds zoom around it.

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  2. Nice footage of the Peregrine.

    Hopefully the Common Darters will go on for a few more weeks yet.

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    Replies
    1. There are also quite a lot of Migrant Hawkers still.

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