Sunday 1 September 2019

There is still enough fruit on the lower branches of the rowan trees to interest Mistle Thrushes ...


... and Starlings.


Another Mistle Thrush picked up fallen fruit on the ground below.


Rose-Ringed Parakeets eat rowan fruit by taking a bunch in their foot and chewing messily on it, wasting a lot.


The male Peregrine returned to the barracks tower, as usual perching with his back to the scene. He soon walked towards the back of the ledge and disappeared from view. The ledge must be quite wide, and all kinds of things may be going on there unseen from the ground.


A Feral Pigeon clung to the vertical stonework of the bridge, flapping frantically to keep a hold, for over a minute. I couldn't see what was interesting it here.


The notorious pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had had enough to eat and perched calmly on the restaurant roof, allowing a band of Carrion Crows to finish off the kill.


The Moorhens in the Dell have four chicks. The other two could be seen indistinctly climbing around between the stems.


The scene was interrupted when the resident Grey Heron landed on a rock next to them. The chicks fled into cover and the parents squawked defiantly.


The Great Crested Grebe family from the west end of the island hasn't been seen for a few days, but today there was a parent with the younger chick at the reed bed to the east of the Lido, here seen from the other side of the lake ...


... and the older chick was by the island.


The grebes from the other end of the island were about to feed one of the chicks. One looked up in annoyance ...


... as a young Black-Headed Gull swooped over repeatedly, trying to grab the fish.


Ahmet Amerkali is keeping an eye on the Little Grebes in Southwark Park bringing up their second brood. Here are one of the parents ...


... and one of the three chicks.


David Element was watching Migrant Hawker dragonflies circling the planters in the Italian Garden, and got a splendid shot of a male in flight. Like birds, but unlike human pilots, they keep their head horizontal when making a banked turn.


He also found a pair of Willow Emerald damselflies mating.


This is excellent news, as we should have more of these beautiful creatures next year. They have spread from Buckingham Palace Gardens to St James's Park and now here.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent news that you probably now having breeding Willow Emeralds in the park. I keep looking close to home but have yet to see them locally.Good photo of the Migrant Hawker in flight.

    I wonder whether the Feral Pigeon would be pecking at the wall to gain some lime for her egg shells?

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    1. It wouldn't get any lime, because the bridge is sandstone. But would it know that?

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