Sunday 15 March 2020

The Grey Herons' nest on the south side of the island has at least one chick in it. There's nothing much to see in this video -- the nest is on the far side of the island and almost hidden by trees. But you can hear a newly hatched chick clattering its bill, which is the way they demand to be fed.


Nothing to see from the other side either, looking across the lake. I spent some time hoping that a little head with a punk hairdo would show over the edge of the nest, but no luck. All you can see is that the parent is higher in the nest than when it was incubating the eggs.


Another heron, maybe this one's mate, gazed across the lake from a weeping willow with fresh green leaves.


The Long-Tailed Tits' nest in the Rose Garden is now fully built, and the birds are lining the inside with a comfortable bed of little feathers. Mostly all you can see is them arriving and leaving.


The nest at the Lido is larger. The tits were away both times I passed, and anyway it's impossible to get good video of this well hidden nest.


A male Great Spotted Woodpecker had no difficulty in scaring Rose-Ringed Parakeets off the feeder in the Rose Garden.


There is a pile of wood chips near the Hyde Park bandstand, which is to be spread under the surrounding trees -- a rotten idea which has been tried in Kensington Gardens and has produced a proliferation of miscellaneous mushrooms, not at all what you want under a tree. A Carrion Crow investigated the heap.


Two good pictures by Tom, taken near the bridge: a Goldcrest ...


... and one of the confident Coal Tits that you can feed from your hand.


The number of winter migrant gulls is falling, and only a few of the Common Gulls remain. They come later than the Black-Headed Gulls and leave earlier. This one was on a post at Peter Pan.


A pair of Moorhens climbed on the posts and chains at the bridge.


The male Egyptian Goose at the Henry Moore sculpture has nothing to do but preen while his mate is on her nest in a tree hole.


After months of absence, a pair of Mandarins has turned up on the Long Water. The drake is in his improbable full breeding plumage.


Mark Williams reports that the Black Swan family in St James's Park are being harassed by a large male Mute Swan. Here is his picture of one of the parents taking refuge behind a bit of netting. One the the cygnets is being looked after by Anita after it was half drowned by this big thug of a bird.

2 comments:

  1. I love them deeply, but why must they be such bullying thugs. Well done Anita, she is a heroine.

    I trust the Long Tailed Tits' ability to spot a good place to build a nest. I imagine they must have been buiding it for at least a couple of years. I hope their experience will serve them well.

    I too was hoping to see a spikey punky head.

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    1. I'm still worried about the Long-Tailed Tits' nest in the gorse bush. Birds don't seem to be deterred by spiky plants, and there are several Magpies and Great Spotted Woodpeckers here that would like nothing more than a meal of nestlings. And if I can see the nest, so can they.

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