Saturday 14 September 2019

The Great Crested Grebes at the bridge carried on with their long task of feeding the chicks. One chick now follows each parent for individual attention.


The single chick from the west end of the island, waiting to be fed, shook itself.


A Moorhen took its ease in the day nest built by Coots at the east end of the Serpentine. The Coots don't use it any more, as their chicks are now grown up.


A Black-Headed Gull pecked at a carp that had died of natural causes.


This young Starling in the Dell is almost grown up, with just a few of its juvenile brown feathers remaining.


Two good pictures by Ahmet Amerkali from beside the Long Water: a female Blackcap ...


... and a Goldcrest in the yew tree next to the bridge.


The people who come to feed the Rose-Ringed Parakeets in Kensington Gardens are often afraid of them, and hold up apples on sticks to avoid being bitten. A Wood Pigeon took advantage of a discarded apple.


A female Migrant Hawker dragonfly circled a planter in the Italian Garden.


There was also a Common Darter, but David Element sent a far more spectacular picture of a pair mating.


In the Dell, Honeybees and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee wandered over a sedum flower head, whose many small flowers gave them plenty to do.


There was a good variety of butterflies in the Rose Garden: a Comma ...


... a rather and tattered faded Painted Lady ...


... a Red Admiral ...


... and a Small White, for once posing with its wings open.

4 comments:

  1. I'm useless with insects, but it looks as if late summer is an uncommonly good time in the UK to get excellent pictures of them.

    Do Parakeets bite so hard as to scare people off? I've heard from some parrot owners that they can be vicious, and may bite for fun.

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    1. When the parakeets first arrived in the park they bit people hard and often. But since parakeet feeding became a popular tourist attraction they have learnt that this is counterproductive, and have stopped. These birds may not be as intelligent as full-size parrots, but they're quite bright.

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  2. Good to see such a flourish of insects at the close of summer. Always worth checking sunlit flowering ivy on trees as these are very attractive to many insects. Yesterday I saw 6 Red Admirals high up amongst some oaks on ivy along with a couple of Speckled Woods.

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    1. We've got plenty of Speckled Woods here too, but I didn't get the chance of a picture.

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