Friday 13 September 2019

The Spotted Flycatchers are still on the west side of the Long Water, but have moved away from the bridge towards the Vista. I only had a brief glimpse of two of them before they disappeared behind a tree, but David Element got a fine shot of one of them on a twig.


A Long-Tailed Tit hung upside down on a hawthorn.


There were several Blackcaps around the Long Water.


A young Wood Pigeon pottered around under a bush.


A Grey Heron was sunbathing on a dead tree with wings outstretched, and took the opportunity to do a bit of preening.


The heron in the Dell looked bored.


Actually, I don't know whether birds genuinely yawn in a way that human would, or if a heron, that endlessly patient bird, is capable of getting bored.

The Great Crested Grebe family from the east end of the island was stationed in the usual place, and the people at Bluebird Boats kindly took me out to get a closer view. The father was looking after the three chicks.


He stood up and had a flap.


Back at the boat platform, the mother had just caught a fish and was carrying it over to the island.


Two young grebes on the Long Water practised their greeting ceremony.


A pair of Gadwalls fed in the reed bed under the marble fountain.


This female Mandarin has been alone on the Long Water for days, and is usually near the shore at the Vista.


Six Cormorants stood on the raft. The number on the lake is steadily increasing.


A woolly-bear type caterpillar inched across the path near the Diana fountain. It was quite small, about an inch and a half long, and my uneducated guess is that it was the caterpillar of a White Ermine moth.


Another excellent picture from David Element: a pair of Migrant Hawker dragonflies mating.


Sunshine on the lake makes rippling reflections under the arch of the Serpentine bridge. There are always Feral Pigeons on the arches.

4 comments:

  1. Funny how it's worked out in the last 40 years in London, with vanishing Bullfinch, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatcher and Wood Warbler, fewer Redpoll and House Sparrow, while many and varied larger breeding birds have swept in. Jim

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    1. And so many possible reasons for this, perhaps different for each species, that it's impossible to make general remarks about why.

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  2. Is there a sight more endearing that the young Grebes practicing their greeting ceremony? The father flapping its wings and showing its white belly is so beautiful.

    I wonder why birds yawn. Maybe they do it to relieve tiredness, not boredom.

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    1. Of all birds Great Crested Grebes seem the least comfortable about folding themselves up neatly. They are constantly shrugging and flapping and waving their feet in the air.

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