Monday 21 January 2019

Three Little Owls were on view today, all female: the one near the Albert Memorial ...


... the one at the Queen's Temple ...


... and the one on the hill above the Henry Moore sculpture, who came out of her hole on to a branch.


Both Peregrines were on the barracks tower.


Six Cormorants on the raft looked up and grunted in annoyance as a Grey Heron flew close by them.


A Great Crested Grebe darted around under water at the edge of the Serpentine.


A pair of Mute Swans have started making a nest behind the railings surrounding one of the small boathouses.


This place is much less secure than it looks, because it's easy for a human to climb, or a fox to wade, round the end of the railings where they project into the water. Last year when the swans nested here, their nest was deliberately destroyed to try to discourage them from choosing this place.

The odd couple of a Red-Crested Pochard drake and a female Mallard was disturbed by a Mallard drake hoping to impress the female. But she preferred her strange mate, and they went off together.


A Tufted Duck was doing nothing beside the Serpentine, but it looked fine in the sunlight.


A young Herring Gull enjoyed rolling a conker around until it accidentally bit through the shell. Then it discarded the toy.


This is a second-winter Lesser Black-Backed Gull, beginning to get its dark grey back.


I'm gradually winning the confidence of this Robin beside the Long Water, but it isn't coming to my hand yet. It will.


A Long-Tailed Tit landed on a twig before coming down to the feeder in the Dell.


Below it, a squirrel was digging frantically in a pile of topsoil which ahd been brought in for the flower beds. It unearthed a peanut from a depth of several inches -- you can just see it emerging in this picture. The squirrel must have found it by smell.


At the top of the Dell, the water filter at the outflow of the Serpentine is getting its annual cleanout. The tanker lorries that come to suck out the sludge are always brightly painted with battling monsters. It cheers up a pretty dismal occupation.

6 comments:

  1. Lovely shots of the Little Owls- the sunshine obviously encouraged them out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What about the leafyard pair in the old sweet chestnut?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They've moved to the Queen's Temple. Same pair.

      Delete
  3. What a great day, to be greeted by three Little Owls!

    So if it doesn't roll, the Gull loses interest. For a reborn Konrad Lorenz to study why!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If a gull's interest in rolling things, a crow's skill at tool making, and a parrot's dextrous feet were combined in one bird, they'd be driving past us while we ate each other's fleas at the roadside.

      Delete