Friday 3 April 2020

Male Greenfinches have two songs, the peculiar wheezing sound heard in a video I made a few days ago, and this twittering song.


Another video of the beautiful song of a Blackcap, singing in a hawthorn beside the Long Water.


A pair of Mistle Thrushes have built a nest in an old sweet chestnut tree on the north edge of Kensington Gardens. The place is too exposed, especially as sweet chestnuts are slow to come into leaf.


The tenants were having trouble with Rose-Ringed Parakeets flying around the tree, which are not predators but are a nuisance, and were rattling irritably at them.


There is also a Song Thrush nest in a tree just south of the clump of catalpas near the Italian Garden. I couldn't see it from the ground, but there were Carrion Crows, Magpies and Jays in the tree and the thrushes were scolding them furiously. One them flew into an adjacent tree to try to draw the invaders away.


Jackdaws are nesting in an oak at the southeast corner of the leaf yard, as they have every year since they returned to the park.


A Chaffinch perched on a thorny stem in the Rose Garden.


A Feral Pigeon clung precariously to a narrow ledge on the vertical face of the bridge.


There is now usually at least one Pied Wagtail running along the edge of the lake at the Lido restaurant.


A Crow looked out from a patch of miniature narcissi in a plant pot on the terrace.


Another crow played with pigeon feathers on the shore. It looked as if it was going to take them to a nest, but it dropped them before flying away.


The female Little Owl near the Henry Moore sculpture was in her usual place in front of the hole.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had crossed the lake and was eyeing a group of pigeons on the south shore, no doubt hoping that they would be easier to catch than the ones in his usual hunting ground.


There is now just one surviving Egyptian gosling, belonging to the white-headed gander and his mate.


A Moorhen perched on one of the fountains in the Italian Garden, which have been turned off. The flying saucer-like structure is a drain.


Tom is cooped up at home, but that doesn't stop him from taking photographs. He got this picture of a bat at sunset from the back door of his house.

7 comments:

  1. On behalf of all those who are self isolating can I say thanks for keeping our spirits up and having something to look forward to every evening.,👐👐👐

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  2. Well said, Derek!
    What would we do without Ralph? What would we do without our daily breath of fresh air?

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  3. Looks like a Noctule bat, I'm sure many of us miss being able to hear them. Jim

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    1. Thanks. Also looked rather like a tiny stealth bomber.

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    2. I once heard a story from a Russian acquaintance that the Serbians struck an American stealth bomber down because they saw its silhouette against the moon and were able to bring it down with a missile. Doesn't tally with the common version of the shootdown though.

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    3. It seem a pretty dubious story. You'd only see the briefest of shadows as it passed in front of the moon.

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