Friday 12 July 2019

The young Great Tits are now mostly independent, and finding insects for themselves.


The Reed Warblers are still singing intermittently on both sides of the Lido and on the Long Water.


The Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was out on her oak tree in the morning, but retreated later when the wind got up.


Many of the geese are now airworthy again after moulting. Some Greylags flew along the Serpentine, just because they could.


The Pochard with two ducklings had moved from the Vista to Peter Pan, where they were all diving briskly in the shallow water.


The Great Crested Grebe chick at the island was sitting comfortably on its parent's back.


The family on the Long Water obstinately stay on the far side, so I can never get a good picture of them.


The pair who have taken over the Coot nest under the willow near the bridge were still there today, and seem to have complete possession of it. One of them was rearranging the nest.


The Coot chicks under the balcony of the Dell restaurant are now strapping teenagers, but still using their nest as the shore on either side is occupied by belligerent Mute Swans, not to mention the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull.


(I've had to go back to using YouTube videos for a while, as my Vimeo account has been suspended after some kind of glitch. Sorry about the reduction in video quality.)

It seems that the Coots trying to nest on the wire baskets by the bridge have finally given up after their third unsuccessful attempt. One of them was still on the nest, but they had allowed it to fall to pieces.


A Moorhen chick under the parapet of the Italian Garden walked along a reed without sinking it.


A Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly rested on a leaf beside the Long Water. You can see its abdomen expanding and contracting as it breathes.


(It was putting this video on Vimeo that caused my account to be suspended. Do they think that 'Black-Tailed Skimmer' is a racial insult? Such is today's paranoia that I wouldn't be surprised.)

Two excellent pictures taken by Tom at Richmond yesterday, before I arrived: a Little owlet ...


... and a Common Tern on a post at Pen Ponds.


This is his video of the Green Woodpecker feeding the chick in Richmond Park.


Tinúviel visited a heronry near Trujillo in Extremadura, where Cattle Egrets, Grey Herons, Spoonbills, and White Storks live together in an uneasy truce and in very cramped quarters. This remarkable video was taken by her guide.

6 comments:

  1. This is getting out of hand. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some combination of words that set off the algorithm. I hope you'll get your Vimeo account back. This is all the more outrageous because it is such a clear, good, didactic, educative video, showing the breathing process of an invertebrate.

    So those Coots have given up on their nest. I don't know if I should be glad that they finally learned from experience, or sad that they can after all acknowledge defeat.

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    Replies
    1. No reaction from Vimeo, to which I wrote within their working hours in New York, and which promises a reply within 4 hours. Now I shall have to go back through all my posts back to 24 May substituting YouTube videos, fortunately already uploaded but still a long job.

      Delete
  2. Love that mixed heronry in Spain.

    ReplyDelete