Tuesday 2 July 2019

Two pairs of Great Crested Grebes had a territorial dispute on the Serpentine. As always, the faceoff ended with both pairs congratulating each other.


The pair on the Long Water have three chicks, not two as I had thought. In this very distant picture they can be seen looking out from their mother's back while their father brings them a feather. Grebes eat quantities of feathers to wrap up spiky fishbones.


The six Greylag goslings on the Serpentine are growing quickly. They ate some reeds, found them tough, and came ashore to crop the grass, which is now scanty after being cropped by geese and trampled by humans.


Their flight feathers are beginning to grow, but it will be a while before they can fly.


 The Pochard with two ducklings appeared briefly at the Vista.


The Mallard at Peter Pan still has six ducklings.


One of the young Pied Wagtails was hunting on the edge of the terrace of the Lido restaurant, where spilt food attracts insects. It caught a Common Blue Damselfly, which was also there to catch smaller insects but found itself to be on the menu.


The Little Owl near the Albert Memorial could be seen in her usual oak tree.


A Magpie looked round in surprise as a Green Woodpecker, scared by a dog, flew over it.


A young Long-Tailed Tit looked out from a tree beside the Long Water.


A young Wren was making a loud fuss on a twig.


Ahmet Amerikali got a fine picture of a young Great Tit clamouring to be fed ...


... and also of a Whitethroat in the Rose Garden.


Conehead54 told me that there were Red-Veined Darter dragonflies at the Round Pond. I went there and found several.


Another good picture by Ahmet: a Honeybee on a knapweed flower.


I thought I was photographing a Honeybee on a bindweed flower, but it turns out to be a bee-mimicking hoverfly. I can't identify the species.

7 comments:

  1. I was in london over the weekend and on saturday i saw a young tawny owl with a fluffy white head roosting in the opening of a tawny owl box close to the physical energy statue. It was one of the trees towards where people feed the parakeets. Also, i didnt know hyde park had a colony of wild rabbits!

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    1. Interesting, thank you. I must go and look at that owl box. I'd written it off as it's only 30ft above the ground.

      There used to be quite a colony of rabbits in Kensington Gardens, around the Henry Moore sculpture. But myxomatosis and foxes seem to have almost wiped it out.

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  2. Yes, it was in the front of the box, i noticed a commotion of magpies and blackbirds and a blackbird was mobbing it. Its out of the nest about 4-5 weeks based on the plumage. Yes i seen 4 fox cubs yesterday evening close to henry moore statue. One of the adults was being hand fed by a few local people. Everything in the park is so tame and so used to people it’s ridiculous.

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    1. The number of Magpies in the park is increasing and they are a sore trial to both species of owl. The Little Owls at the leaf yard have been driven away by them, and I haven't found where they've gone.

      We had a very tame young fox, though no longer a cub, that could be hand fed in the leaf yard a few months ago, As you say, it's ridiculous.

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  3. What an incredible video of the young Wagtail catching a damsel! That was quite the feat of coordination and agility on the part of the bird.

    I shudder to think what sort of clamour a young Wren can raise.

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    1. Damselflies are much slower than dragonflies, and wagtails are very fast from a standing start. I've seen a Pied Wagtail catch a damselfly before.

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  4. Yes theres a tonne of magpies, they are a pain! Such a shame about the lead yard little owls. I seen a little owl very briefly in the tree close to where you feed the parakeets. That fox i seen being hand fed could be the same fox possibly.

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