On the other side of the path a Robin preened vigorously ...
... and a Goldcrest darted about.
A Wren was well camouflaged at the base of a tree.
A Long-Tailed Tit flew up to land on a hawthorn twig.
In the rowan tree on Buck Hill, several Blackbirds ...
... and a Mistle Thrush made the most of the remaining fruit.
There were three Mistle Thrushes together near the Serpentine Gallery. Evidently the resident pair have bred successfully again.
Two Starlings pecked crumbs from a chocolate cupcake wrapper at the Lido restaurant. They are particularly fond of chocolate cake -- and probably there isn't enough theobromine in the crumbs to harm them.
A Carrion Crow picked at a feather that a Sparrowhawk had ripped from a Feral Pigeon. There must have been a little bit of flesh clinging to the tip, and a crow's motto is Waste not, want not.
Now that the bathers have gone from the Lido, a Grey Heron can use the jetty as a fishing platform.
This is what a Great Crested Grebe parent has to put up with for months on end. She yawned (though we don't know whether it's a yawn of boredom, or even if birds get bored).
The ever patient Mateusz from Bluebird Boats searched for two people's spectacles that they had dropped in the lake. The first pair are expensive ones with titanium frames. The owner said that titanium can be picked up with a magnet, which is what Mateusz is using. I looked this up afterwards, and it seems that the metal is only very weakly magnetic.
The owner proposes to send for a diver to find his spectacles, which will cost at least £300. They must be a very expensive pair indeed. Looking for the second pair, Mateusz dredged up a Mexican one peso coin, not much of a reward for his efforts.
I used to own a pair of titanium-framed eyeglasses. They set me back about 600 euros at the time. Don't know if prices have gone up or down since then. I wonder though how can one manage to drop a pair of very expensive glasses into a lake. I think us short-sighted people would sooner sacrifice our firstborn.
ReplyDeleteMateusz is a national treasure.
I like the grandeur with which the Heron surveys its domains, now the pesky humans are gone.
The glasses were in the lake under the bridge parapet, so I suppose he was looking down on to the lake and they fell off.
DeleteI get the impression your Spotted Flycatchers are the longest stayers of the autumn in London. The very wet weather this week may urge them to move a bit?
ReplyDeleteI thought I saw them this morning, from a distance, but looking at a photograph on the computer shows them to be Chiffchaffs. So they may have gone now.
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