Wednesday 12 June 2019

There were two pairs of Greylag Geese with two new goslings each ...


... on either side of the Serpentine.


But, puzzlingly, there are still no Canada goslings at all.

The Mute Swan cygnet on the Serpentine, which I hadn't seen for some time and feared lost, reappeared, peacefully cropping algae beside its mother.


The cygnet on the Long Water was toiling through the algae to rejoin its mother. This is not just a mat on the surface; the strands extend up from the bottom of the lake.


There was a large crowd of moulting swans near the bridge, making the path extremely messy. You could smell it from the top of the bridge.


A Mallard at Peter Pan had three new ducklings.


The two Moorhens from the hidden nest under the platform of Bluebird Boats came out for a few minutes. They are now in the teenage brown stage before they get their adult colours.


Coots fought under the stern of a moored rowing boat.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull enjoyed his lunch.


I haven't seen his mate for a while. Maybe she's nesting.

The young Pied Wagtails are still with their parents, but now finding food for themselves.


A Song Thrush sang on a dead branch next to the bridge, having to raise his voice to be heard over the noise of the traffic.


A female Blackbird looked out from a holly bush.


A young Starling flew into the Lido restaurant, but found no scraps on the floor and left.


A pair of Carrion Crows found some tasty morsels in a litter bin.


A young Magpie drank coffee from a cup on the terrace. I think there must have been a lot of sugar at the bottom of the cup.



A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee visited a cornflower in the Rose Garden.

4 comments:

  1. In Golders Hill Park this evening, an adult Lesser Black-back was pecking at the torso of a feral pigeon that it had been seen to kill over an hour earlier, on the upper pond, where birds are fed most. No other birds were nearby when I arrived. Jim.

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    1. Reporting on the behaviour of the bird in the park here and on YouTube has brought in quite a few reports of similar behaviour elsewhere. Lesser Black-Backs, Yellow-Legged Gulls and California Gulls seem to account for most of the pigeons killed.

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  2. Love, love, love the picture of the Bumblebee on the cornflower. Spectacular colours.

    God help us, a caffeinated Magpie. What did it act like afterwards?

    Very glad to see the missing Cygnet turned up. So many new babies - let us cross our fingers for them.

    I am sort of glad to see that Coots continue to uphold Coot civilization's traditions, and that includes fighting like one demented, with as much energy as little point.

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  3. I was worried about that Magpie, since caffeine can be lethal to some animals. But maybe birds are no more affected by it than humans, as the bird seemed quite all right afterwards, and it was not behaving strangely. I think it was getting mostly sugar from the bottom of the cup, with only enough coffee to moisten it.

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