Wednesday 2 January 2019

The female Little Owl at the Queen's Temple was looking disgruntled ...


... because there was an Egyptian Goose honking on the branch a few feet to her hole.


The male was flitting around agitatedly in the top of the tree, and wouldn't stop for a moment to have his picture taken.


Both the Peregrines were on the barracks tower.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull shooed away an intruder ...


... but there was a rare glimpse of a family group with what must be their offspring from last year.


A Black-Headed Gull had a cheesy snack. Despite careful research I can't identify it, but since it is probably from a stall at the Winter Wasteland it could be from anywhere.


The Grey Heron in the Dell shooed away some Black-Headed Gulls that were interfering with its fishing.


The herons in the lowest nest on the island are still incessantly poking around in the bottom of the nest, and it really does look as if they already have eggs. The other three nests remain occupied but don't seem so far advanced.


A Cormorant caught a perch in the Long Water near the Italian Garden.


A pair of Gadwalls cruised around in one of the fountains.


The female Great Crested Grebe of the pair at the west end of the island is still in her plain winter plumage while the other grebes are growing their breeding finery, and her mate is already completely in his summer feathers.


One of the pair of Dunnocks at the Lido came out to forage on the edge of the water.


A Robin had caught a very small larva in a bush near Peter Pan.


A small band of Long-Tailed Tits went past.


A Wren came out on a bramble near the Buck Hill shelter.


An elegant carriage waited at Queen's Gate to attend a wedding at Holy Trinity Church in Prince Consort Road, a neo-Gothic building of 1901 by G.F. Bodley shoehorned into an odd-shaped site on a hill. It must be difficult to get into this vehicle in a wedding dress, and harder to get out.

8 comments:

  1. Isn't it some kind of onion ring crisp? Jim

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seemed too small for an onion ring, and there was that bright orange dye which one hopes is carotene rather than Sunset Yellow FCF made from petroleum. But diligent searches among Cheesy Wotsits and Hula Hoops have failed to come up with any matches. Birds are so much easier.

      Delete
  2. I'd like, tentatively, to venture the suggestion of Umaiwa Cheese:

    https://japanhaul.com/products/umaiwa-cheese?variant=8224666812468

    but you really need an equivalent of Mario who knows the world of fast food snax inside-out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I was wondering about a Regent Cheese Ring Snack, but probably this isn't as luridly orange as the object in the picture. We really need a snack maven on this blog.

      Delete
  3. I find it weird to think of Pigeon Killer as a family man, er, gull.

    That picture of the Little Owl eyeing the Egyptian with mistrust is wonderful. She is about to say "its legs to fall off" or such like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The pigeon killer is really quite considerate to his mate at least. See Thursday's picture.

      Delete
    2. There is a Spanish saying that would account for that, but it is not fit to repeat in polite company!

      Delete