Wednesday 10 October 2018

The usual pair of Nuthatches ...


... 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.

4 comments:

  1. 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) ?

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    1. A 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.

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    2. I 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.

      I love the log trick. Such a bonanza of little birds!

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    3. 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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