Thursday 9 July 2020

The young Carrion Crows on Buck Hill are still being fed by their parents. Here each of them gets a nut from a peanut in the shell that I gave a parent. It takes some time for young crows to learn how to shell peanuts.


This young Magpie was old enough to feed itself, but still unsuccessfully trying to get some food from a parent. In the end the adult flew away.


A Magpie was going through the contents of a rubbish bin beside the Serpentine. Probably the things were pulled out by a crow, as a Magpie wouldn't be strong enough to lift that super size cup of some dubious McDonalds concoction.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was having a lie down on the roof of the Dell restaurant to digest his lunch ...


... while a young Lesser Black-Back finished off the remains.


I used to think that other Lesser Black-Backs would copy the notorious gull and catch their own pigeons, and indeed a couple have tried, but none of them has succeeded. Our gull is very big for a Lesser Black-Back, clever and with the experience of years of hunting pigeons.

One of the Great Crested Grebes at the east end of the island gave a feather to a chick -- feathers help with grebes' digestion by wrapping up sharp fishbones. So far I've only seen one chick here, but it's a difficult place to see what's happening.


The two younger grebe chicks on the Long Water were idling among some Canada Geese when one of them saw a parent carrying a fish and raced off to grab it.


This Coot chick near the Lido is a couple of weeks old and has nearly lost its bright red face and orange feathers.


A contrast in colours between the blond Mallard duckling ...


... and the dark one.


There may be greater contrasts, since adult Mallards can be any shade between black and white.

A Pochard drake rested on the Serpentine.


The Mute Swans with four cygnets took them right up to the bridge. It would be a bad idea to go beyond it, since there are two pairs of swans with cygnets on the Long Water which might attack the interlopers.


A young Pied Wagtail at the Round Pond -- thanks to Mark Williams for this picture.


And another fine picture by Paul from Richmond Park: the two young Kestrels from the nest in the dead oak, now teenagers.


The Purple Loosestrife in the Italian Garden fountain pools is a magnet for bees of several species.

6 comments:

  1. Today while I was invigilating yet another exam a young magpie kept begging and pestering its parents near by the window. It took all my willpower not to stand up and take a look - I hope the naughty bird, knowing they are easily bribed, wasn't in cahoots with my students to distract my attention.

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    1. The young birds do make an insistent racket, enough to distract any student trying to remember the paradigm of βαίνω.

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    2. Magpies are more likely to remember it than this year's crop of students, sadly. I should perhaps have the magpies take the exam in their stead.

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    3. Of course, that's what they're shrieking in the trees: ἔβην, βῆθι, βῶ, βαίην, βῆναι, βάς!

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  2. I simply adore the bees video... buzzing away, so lovely and lively..:)))

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    1. Those clumps of purple loosestrife have now seeded themselves all over the park. It's pretty but invasive.

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