Saturday 18 January 2020

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the male Little Owl near the Henry Moore sculpture came out in the morning to sunbathe. He stared suspiciously ...


... at a Magpie on the nearby alder tree.


The male owl near the Albert Memorial came out at the front of his hole in the afternoon.


Two Goldcrests flitted around in the shrubbery near the bridge.


A male Chaffinch looked down from a holly tree.


A Jay came to be given a peanut.


A Carrion Crow splashed in the Serpentine.


A Starling on the railings of the Lido restaurant waiting for some scraps to be available passed the time with a song.


A Robin in the Rose Garden struck an operatic pose to sing while I was filling up the feeder.


A Cormorant took off from the Long Water.


A pair of Grey Herons inspected a football on the gravel bank.


There are still two large baskets in the trees here and they could nest in them if they liked, but our herons don't seem to have grasped the idea. There was renewed nesting activity on the island today. However, this could go on for months before a pair actually decides to breed.

Two Mute Swans courted at the west end of the Serpentine.


The dominant male in this area doesn't like displays of affection on his territory, and when he sees one he busks over to break it up.


An Egyptian Goose chewed a dead plane leaf, didn't like it, and dropped it.


Three foxes basked in the winter sunlight on the edge of the Long Water.


By the time we got round to that side they had all gone, and a rabbit was mooching around in the undergrowth. This is the first rabbit I've seen for months since the last outbreak of myxomatosis. It looked perfectly healthy.

4 comments:

  1. It was a gorgeous day after a distinctly cold start. The courting swans look so elegant! Nice to see some mammals today. I don't seem to see Foxes as frequently as I used to around my garden.

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  2. Too many mammals of the primate order on a sunny Saturday. Was lucky to get a reasonable number of pictures.

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  3. LOL at the Magpie feigning innocence.
    I wonder if the dominant swan has an unhappy marriage, to begrudge public displays of affection like that.

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    1. I think the dominant swan wants to prevent any rivals from nesting by attacking any sign of romance. But swans live in perpetual fury. No wonder the one yesterday had to eat willow bark.

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