Saturday 8 December 2018

The female Little Owl near the Queen's Temple enjoyed the morning sunshine.


The Black Swan came over to the Vista to be fed ...


... and a Great Crested Grebe took things easy.


But it soon clouded over. The hopeless pair of Egyptian Geese were in one of the fountain pools in the Italian Garden. To everyone's relief, possibly including their own, they have showed no desire to breed for some time. They arrived in the park 15 years ago as adults, and they may be quite old. Egyptian Geese in the protected environment of a zoo are said to have lived to 35.


The pair of Mute Swans who dominate the island were in their usual place in front of the gate in the fence.


There are now a fair number of Shovellers on the Long Water.


A young Herring Gull played with a traditional gull's toy, a mossy stone.


But this one had found a credit card in the lake, a much more exciting plaything.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had just missed catching a pigeon, and was looking rather peeved.


The Black-Headed Gull with ring number EY09813 came out to be fed bits of digestive biscuit, catching them neatly in the air. In two visits it ate two whole biscuits.


A Chaffinch waited under the feeder in the Rose Garden for some Great Tits to spill birdseed out of it.


Although there is no more rowan fruit to be had, the Blackbirds remain in the hawthorn tree on Buck Hill, sometimes going into the hawthorn hedge along the edge of the road.


A Robin bathed in a muddy puddle.

4 comments:

  1. Off to Harvey Nicks, I expect.

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    Replies
    1. Will scarcely be noticed among the other customers.

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  2. And now they have learned the use of a credit card as well. Behold, the future world Overlords are here.
    What a pretty Robin, keeping spick and span.

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    Replies
    1. Who knows what will be charged to the card owner's account? Especially now that you can buy things up to a value of £30 just by waving your card at the machine.

      Delete