Tuesday 19 March 2019

The Peregrines on the barracks tower mated. The female had just eaten a pigeon -- you can see the remains on the ledge -- and evidently the male thought she was in a good mood.






 Wham, bam, and thank you ma'am.

The courtship of Rose-Ringed Parakeets is, as Marcus Aurelius said about life, more like wrestling than dancing.


Cormorants have a peculiar courtship display where they fling their heads backwards.


A Blackbird found a large worm near the bridge and chopped it into bite-sized pieces before swallowing it.


Another basked in the sunshine in the Dell.


Starlings at the Lido restaurant enjoyed the leftovers of a pizza, one of their favourite foods, though probably chips and chocolate cake are tops.


Another Blue Tit plans to nest in a gas lamp post, in this case lamp number 76, behind the Lido, which has been used in previous years. This clip is only a few seconds because the bird flew away and didn't come back for a while, and I tired of waiting for it.


A Long-Tailed Tit paused for a moment beside the Long Water. They are building nests, and are seen in pairs rather the usual flocks.


There were three Coal Tits in the leaf yard ...


... and the pair of Nuthatches came to take food from the railings.


A Great Spotted Woodpecker looked for insects in the top of a tree near the Magazine.


A Wren poked around in the wind-blown detritus at the north end of the Long Water, and found a small larva.


The young Grey Herons are now almost as large as their parents, and the eldest may already be capable of flight.


The Coots rebuilding their huge nest at the east end of the Serpentine have added a plastic Slinky and the wine list of the Dell restaurant.


A Gadwall drake rinsed and preened his feathers on the Serpentine. Their sober grey is relieved by ginger and white on the wings.


I haven't been to St James's Park for a couple of days, so here are recent pictures of the Tawny Owl and the owlet kindly provided by Joan Chatterley.


4 comments:

  1. And they say romance is dead.

    Glad to see more pictures of the Tawnies. So happy that the owlet is growing up fast!

    I swear, that Coot looks as if it is reading the wine menu.

    Starlings's culinary tastes are scarily human-like, I'd say.

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    1. Well, there are always Great Crested Grebes to keep up the tradition of courtly love.

      Starlings will eat most human food but, in the traditional British way, avoid salad or anything suspiciously healthy.

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  2. Good to see the Tawnies again.

    Hope your Peregrines are more successful than the Charing Cross Hospital birds where one has a fertility problem!

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    Replies
    1. If this pair succeed, it will be for the first time as far as I know. And they've been together for several years.

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