... Robin ...
... and Coal Tit ...
... came out to be fed at the leaf yard. I prefer to photograph them on natural branches, but there is an old trick for photographing small birds: put a log in a convenient place and scatter bird seed on it, preferably in a place where it doesn't show so that the picture looks natural.
A Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge of the Serpentine ...
... and a Grey Wagtail used the buoys at the Lido as a hunting station, from which it flew out to catch passing insects.
A Carrion Crow finished off the last scraps of a victim of the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull.
A Jay buried acorns on Buck Hill.
At the Henry Moore sculpture, a Jackdaw came out to demand a peanut.
Then it went down to the gravel bank and had a bath.
There was a Shoveller drake on the gravel ...
... and a Pochard drake.
A favourite meeting and bathing place for Feral Pigeons is the collapsed kerb in front of the Peter Pan statue.
One of the young Grey Herons stood on a bridge abutment, looking like an ornamental stone statue.
The young Mute Swan in the Italian Garden fountain preened its injured right wing, which now seems to be moving quite freely.
This afternoon, whilst on a bus going around Marble Arch, and looking out on that green traffic island with the large horse's head sculpture (by "Nic Fiddian-Green, apparently; didn't know that, although I rather like it), what should I spot but a large gull demolishing the cadaver of a pigeon. Am wondering , of course, if that's an opportunist, a new candidate, or our familiar killer having expanded his hunting ground. Many other pigeons were milling around, but seemed to ignore the scene. Has anybody else seen this , outside the park (just) ?
ReplyDeleteA Lesser Black-Back has also been seen at this end of the Regent's Canal, but I haven't been able to establish whether it's our gull or another. Same with the LBB in St James's Park. Comments on my YouTube channel show that pigeon-eating LBBs are found in many places, though it's only the biggest, strongest and cleverest gulls in the population that succeed.
DeleteI have seen pretty big yellow-legged gulls in Northern Spain hunting and killing pigeons, for sure. Mainly at the beach. A much bloodier affair than our Pigeon Killer's usual fair.
DeleteI love the log trick. Such a bonanza of little birds!
It's a bit surprising that there are no reports so far of killer Herring Gulls, which are the biggest of these three closely related species.
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