Thursday 25 July 2019

It was a hot day. A young Magpie was panting, but that didn't keep it from finding and eating a bit of bread.


A Feral Pigeon kept cool by panting and vibrating its throat.


A Greylag Goose stood with its wings akimbo to help dissipate heat.


The pale Greylag has now regrown its flight feathers. You can see the slightly darker primaries sticking out at each side of its tail.


The Great Crested Grebe family on the Long Water are now mobile and had come up to the reed bed, where a parent found a fish for one of the chicks.


There is a new grebe nest at the east end of the island, only visible from a boat. Mateusz took this picture on his mobile.


At the other end of the island, the single chick sat on the nest beside its father.


He got off, leaving the chick. I think this is a sign that no eggs have been laid yet. The later they are laid the better, giving the chick a greater chance of survival.


The two newly arrived teenage grebes are completely independent of their parents, at an age when many are still begging to be fed. They were fishing under the moored pedalos.


The Coots' fourth nest on the weir at the outflow of the Serpentine was washed away. Nothing daunted, they have built a fifth nest in just one day.


A Coot chick from the neighbouring nest on the net surrounding the reed bed was picking algae off the mesh.


A Wren near the Rose Garden was furious at a Magpie which had invaded its tree. When I came back ten minutes later it was still scolding the intruder continuously.


The male Little Owl was in the oak near the Albert Memorial.


Large purple flowers in the Dell attracted Honeybees.


Mark Williams was in St James's Park, where he got a good picture of a Peacock butterfly.


I've seen a couple in Kensington Gardens this year, but didn't manage to get a shot, so this is the first view on the blog this year.

A sight in St Albans Grove was producing double takes from the passers by.

9 comments:

  1. 'he's just a big pussy-cat, really'

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    1. Have just finished reading Jim Corbett's The Man-Eaters of Kumaon, which leaves you much fonder of tigers than you would expect.

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    2. I'll have a look in the library.

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    3. It's available online as a facsimile here, and allegedly as free ebook here though the link said the site was busy when I looked.

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  2. Good news about the grebe chick, I think. If there are no eggs yet a few precious days may be gained yet.

    Those coots are particular idols of mine. If at first, or at the hundredth time, you don't succeed, try, try again.

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  3. Seems to have been a good emergence of the new generation of Peacocks. I saw quite a lot on my patch last weekend, saw 1 on a Hebe at work a couple of days ago + I had 2 close together on one of my Buddlejas.

    That tiger would have made me do a double-take.

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    1. We haven't done too well here with Peacocks of either generation. Or with Marbled Whites, which were very numerous elsewhere. I saw just two, and didn;t get a picture of either.

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