Friday 17 January 2020

A Wood Pigeon in the Rose Garden foraged along the edge of a bed of polyanthus primroses, the most colourful (indeed garish) of winter flowers.


A Carrion Crow looked for insects and worms among the snowdrops in the Dell, the first hint of spring to come.


A Jay which had already taken a peanut demanded a second one, thinking that I couldn't see the bulge where it had the first one in its crop. But it looked so appealing that I gave it one anyway.


A Great Tit near the bridge delicately picked at a pine nut, savouring every mouthful of this expensive snack.


When I was walking over the bridge one of the usual Coal Tits saw me and flew up to the top of a tree to be fed. They're used to the passing traffic.


This is one of a pair of Coal Tits at the west edge of the Rose Garden, shy and hard to photograph.


During a sunny spell a few Long-Tailed Tits passed through the pleached limes on the south side of the Rose Garden.


Earlier the male Peregrine was on the barracks tower, as usual with his back turned. The light was dim, so it's a grainy picture.


It doesn't take much rain to turn the flatter bits of the park into a swamp, because there's only a thin layer of soil under the grass and under that it's impervious London clay. Crows looked for worms in the flooded grass.


The remains of the Winter Wasteland are steadily being removed, exposing a barren marsh. Black-Headed Gulls explored it.


It was also windy. In the Italian Garden the flow in the marble fountain had to be turned down to a trickle to avoid deluging people with spray. A Black-Headed Gull took the opportunity to look for larvae in the algae.


A pair of Egyptian Geese turned downwind and got ruffled.


A Mute Swan chewed willow bark. This contains salicin, a natural version of aspirin. Perhaps it had a headache.

2 comments:

  1. I think I can picture Ralph being followed, Pied Piper of Hamelin-like, by small birds demanding pine nuts.

    Dunno. I like garish flowers.

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    Replies
    1. Coal Tits in particular do follow people who feed them, sometimes for several minutes along the path. They hide the food in trees to eat later.

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