Friday 14 December 2018

A Great Crested Grebe looked for fish and other aquatic creatures in a submerged carpet of dead leaves at the outflow of the Serpentine, a place which allows you to film looking down from the parapet.


A teenage Moorhen at Peter Pan is now old enough to have a red and yellow bill and yellow feet, but is still in brown plumage rather than the black and dark brown of the adult at the back.


A Coot brought up a stone covered with algae, carried it to the edge and started pecking at it. Gulls also collect and probe these encrusted stones. There must be more here than just the algae.


Another Coot had some floating object with algae on it. It was eyed enviously by a Black-Headed Gull.


A Black-Headed Gull played with a plane leaf. These waxy leaves remain tough when dead, and make interesting rustling and crinkling noises.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull took a moment off hunting to have a scratch.


Cormorants have taken over the raft on the Long Water.


Intended as a nesting place for Common Terns, this raft has been used by countless species, but no tern has ever looked at it. A few terns do actually visit the park in spring, coming down the Grand Union Canal which terminates in Paddington just north of the park.

There are now eight Gadwalls on the Serpentine, about as many as we ever get.


A Shoveller added a bit of colour to a grey day.


A Pochard preened near the bridge.


One of the Peregrines was on the barracks tower.


A Mistle Thrush visited a cabbage palm tree in the Rose Garden to eat the fruit.


According to Conehead54, who regularly comments on this blog, seedlings of this tree dispersed by birds can now be found growing as pavement weeds.

Several flocks of Long-Tailed Tits ranged round the Serpentine.


A Robin fluffed itself up against the morning chill untill it was almost spherical.

2 comments:

  1. Always a delight to see a spherical Robin. Can they get any more adorable?

    No wonder biologists decided to study Grebes' propelling system. It shouldn't work, but it does, with exquisite precision.

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    Replies
    1. Grebes discovered turbine blades before we did.

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