Saturday 10 August 2019

On a very windy day, the water from the marble fountain in the Italian Garden was blowing all over the place.


It blew a willow (and me) around while two Mute Swans took off. A strong headwind encourages them to fly, because they need less of a run to get airborne.


A fine picture by Ahmet Amerikali of a Greylag Goose flying down the Serpentine.


The small birds were mostly keeping their heads down in the bushes, but again there was a group looking for insects in the half dead hawthorn near the Italian Garden, and the Chiffchaff was with them.


In a sheltered spot next to the bridge, one of my regular Great Tits came out to be fed.


The young Grey Heron in the Dell is now over a year old and getting its adult colours.


Another heron looked crossly at a pair of Mute Swans that were blocking the way to its fishing spot.


A young Cormorant gave me an imperious stare.


The band of Great Crested Grebes that flew into the Serpentine a day ago are still in a loose group, though there is some bickering when they get too close together.


One of them preened its wings, and had a flap to settle the feathers into a smooth arrangement.


The new grebes' nest next to the bridge is usually masked by willow leaves, but the wind blew them out of the way. The bridge protects this place from the worst of the weather, unless there is a strong east wind blowing through the arches.


The one Tufted duckling on the Serpentine survives against all odds. It is getting noticeably larger.


The six Tufted ducklings were under the balustrade of the Italian Garden, diving like mad. I just managed to get five and a half of them into the picture.


There is no difficulty getting the five teenage Mallards into one shot as they rove around in a tight band.

2 comments:

  1. That's quite a strong wind. Were you in any danger? Only a couple of days ago a tree branch fell on a woman and hurt her severely.

    I'm sure the little Tufted survivor is a great diver. Hopefully it will pass its genes along,

    Poor Heron. Those Swans appear to be saying, "I move for no man".

    Grebes are such uncommonly fast swimmers when they want to!

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    1. It was nothing compared to the storm of 1987. I was out when the wind reached its peak of 97 mph (that's 155 km/h), and the only way I could get down the street was by holding on to the railings. That was quite exciting.

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