Thursday 27 June 2019

A Grey Heron was standing on the edge of the new nest, looking down at the recently hatched chick. In this picture you can just see it as a vague grey areas at the bottom left.


In this brief video clip you can see it looking out of the nest for a moment.


The young heron that lives in the Dell looked hungrily at a Moorhen.


I once saw a heron catch one and try to swallow it whole. Despite its best efforts it was unsuccessful.

A Carrion Crow saw me coming and called its friends over to beg for peanuts.


One dunked a couple of peanuts in the lake. They don't like their food dry, and will even dunk quite moist scraps to make them more palatable.


The Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was again in an almost unphotographable place, but I got a mediocre picture of her preening.


There were a dozen Sand Martins over the Round Pond, as well as a few House Martins and Swifts.


A young Starling at the Lido restaurant called for attention from its parents.


The Mute Swan cygnet on the Serpentine preened its downy feathers.


This Egyptian Goose has very nearly finished regrowing its wing feathers after moulting. Only a little of the blue wrapping around its new feathers remains, to be removed by preening.


There was a Common Blue Damselfly in the wildflower patch in the Rose Garden ...


... and a Red-Eyed Damselfly on a patch of algae in one of the Italian Garden pools. Both these and the later appearing Small Red-Eyed Damselflies always favour the south end of the northeast pool.


Tom was at Rainham, and took this picture of a juvenile Peregrine flying over the marsh.


He also got this excellent shot of a Whitethroat picking up a caterpilar ...


... and video of the same bird.

6 comments:

  1. The crows of Springfield Park eat my peanuts on dry land, maybe because the little lake there is not very good for shores, although there are a few shallow spots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, they do that too here, but if there's any water, even a puddle, they will go to it.

      Delete
  2. That such a cute little thing should be so vicious (at least from the caterpillar's point of view).

    I hope the newborn Heron chick will not suffer from being hatched so late in the year. There is still plenty of fish to go around, right?

    Run, Moorhen, run!

    The picture of the crow calling its friends to the party is so vivid I can almost hear it cawing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's no disadvantage for the young heron. There will always be fish and rats to be caught unless there is some universal disaster.

      Delete
    2. Look at how downy that swan cygnet is! I suppose they lose that softness with age.
      Hels and Joseph

      Delete
    3. They go through a slightly shaggy transition before they become elegant grey teenagers.

      Delete