Monday 22 April 2019

There is a single Great Crested Grebe chick on the Long Water, already several days old, from an unseen nest.


Mateusz from Bluebird Boats found another grebe chick from the nest at the east end of the island, which had got stuck in a wire basket. He was able to release it. That explains why the grebes left this nest, which has been empty for some days.

The nest at the other end of the island is still a going concern.


Coots are building nests furiously all over the place, carrying twigs through a mob of boats on this sunny Bank Holiday Monday.


The nest between two baskets at the island, started and abandoned, is active again.


This one on the edge of the Serpentine is not as hopeless as it looks, since it is beside the terrace of the Lido restaurant, where a fence and a line of planters keep people away from it. There is a small chance that it might succeed.


The two families of Egyptian Geese with three goslings were visible under the bridge ...


... and near the Lido.


Egyptian goslings grow fast on a diet of algae, much more nutritious than its unpromising appearance would suggest. At one time there were plans to feed astronauts in space stations by growing Chlorella, a single-celled alga.


The two young Grey Herons were preening in their nest.



The pair of Little Owls near the Albert Memorial were together in their new nest tree.


The crowd around the lake forced the Carrion Crows into the treetops, but they kept a wary eye out for anything they could swoop down and scavenge.


A Jay took a peanut up into the coloured leaves of a Japanese maple.


A Long-Tailed Tit perched among bright new leaves.


The Goldcrests in the yew tree near the bridge were rushing around and calling.


But they don't seem to go near the nest they built just above the path, and I think they must have abandoned it and made a new one higher up in the tree.

A male Blackbird was carrying a large squishy larva to the nest. I gave him some sultanas to make a well balanced meal.

2 comments:

  1. The Japanese maple sets off the Jay's brownish colour so well.

    Yay, first stripey head of the year!

    When I was a fledgling powerlifter, aeons ago, taking algae powder supplements was all the rage. Thankfully that went the way of the dodo, in no small measure because it tasted ***vile**.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that was also the problem with the Chlorella given to astronauts.

      Delete