Thursday 26 September 2019

The marble fountain in the Italian Garden had stopped working again, and the female of the hopeless pair of Egyptian Geese took advantage of this to eat the algae.


A Great Crested Grebe checked the space between two wire baskets at the bridge to see if a perch had carelessly put its head out.


This Jay usually intercepts me near the Albert Memorial and asks for a peanut, then swoops down and take it from my fingers.


The Great Tits in the Flower Walk also expect to be fed.


The Coal Tit at the bridge collected nuts from Mark Williams's hand, coming down again and again and caching the food in cracks in bark.


A sunny spell started a Goldcrest singing.


A Robin sang at the top of its voice to be heard above the noise of a helicopter and a police siren.


Then on to Richmond Park, where a Robin sang gently to itself in the middle of a bush in the Isabella Plantation. The technical term for this is 'subsong'.


Mandarins in the pond were back in their incredible breeding plumage and displaying fit to bust.


There was a beautiful euonymus bush.


The rutting season hasn't started properly yet, but the Red Deer were making a noise like the soundtrack of Jurassic Park. A young stag stared out of the bracken.


A Fallow buck was grazing peacefully.


Tom was at Rainham Marshes, where he got a fine shot of a Kingfisher.

4 comments:

  1. Is there anything sweeter than a bird singing quietly to itself? I could listen to it for hours.

    Mandarins are truly spectacular. Gaudy, but spectacular.

    Lovely picture of the Coal Tit. It looks confident and happy. The Jay on the other hand looks almost entitled. But who could say no?

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    1. Once a Coal Tit considers that you are OK it becomes quite demanding, more so than the larger tits. Sometimes it will follow you for quite a way, constantly popping out of the bushes to ask for more.

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  2. Nice video of the Mandarins- I always enjoy watching their comical displays.

    For some reason male Fallow (+ Roe) Deer tend to be called bucks rather than stags which seems to be reserved for Red Deer. Female Fallows are does + Reds are hinds. I've never understood why they don't have a standard gender name for all deer.

    I'm going away in a week so will probably miss the best of the Red Deer rut which is always a highlight. Will have to do a wildfowl count there when I return so hope some rut action still!

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    1. Thanks for the guidance on names. Clearly this is an old hunters' convention -- they loved devising complex technical terms to exclude outsiders.

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