Friday 11 January 2019

A Song Thrush foraging beside the Serpentine ...


... flew up into a tree and treated us to a burst of song.


There were Goldfinches twittering in the tops of the alder trees on the east side of the Long Water.


A Mistle Thrush flew into the Rose Garden, disturbing the calm of the resident pair, and there was a great deal of chasing and furious rattling.


A Robin perched on a branch above a feeder in the Dell. I don't think they can get into the caged feeders. They could go through the mesh, but their very spindly legs and rather weak feet don't seem to have enough grip for the manoeuvre.


There is no difficulty for Long-Tailed Tits, which constantly visit the nut feeders here. Their very small beaks have no difficulty in pecking out bits of nut.


A Blue Tit ...


... and a Great Tit turned up to be fed in the shrubbery at the southwest corner of the bridge.


So did the usual Jay, which gave me a challenging stare while it waited for me to stop photographing and hold up a peanbut for it to snatch.


But nothing can outstare a Little Owl.


The female Peregrine was on the barracks tower.


A Black-Headed Gull was clearly finding small edible creatures in the little stream in the Dell, but it's hard to say what -- there would be water fleas (Daphnia) but are these large enough to bother with?


This one in almost full breeding plumage has a deep beetroot-coloured bill and legs. I think that the red colour deepens with age. The ring, number EX63683, was put on by Roy Sanderson here in the park at least ten years ago. Black-Headed Gulls often live to more than thirty.


A Great Crested Grebe preened at the Lido. This is the one that was rescued when it was stuck in the Dell.


At Peter Pan, three female Tufted Ducks were taking a break from the drakes.

2 comments:

  1. The rescued Grebe is looking exceedingly fine.

    I wonder if hunting small water flees would warrant such a gannet impersonation on the part of the Black-Headed Gull. But then again, gulls have a flair for drama.

    Love the perfectly spherical Blue and Long Tailed Tits to bits. The Robin though looks a tad pensive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am baffled by that gull. It's not a fast moving stream but it does have a current, so anything like insect larvae would simply be washed down. It's the wrong time of year for tiny fish. The gull was diving quite regularly, so there must have been something there, and it must have been capable of swimming to keep its place in the stream.

      Delete