Tuesday 14 July 2020

There was a loud twittering from the holly tree beside the Long Water where the Starlings usually assemble. But it wasn't them. It was a large mixed flock of Long-Tailed Tits and Blue Tits, taking their young along with them as they progressed across the park.



Mark Williams took this picture in the Flower Walk. At the time he thought it was a young Robin, but it doesn't have the usual spots except for a few on its neck. He couldn't work out what it was, and neither can I. Update: Tom has identified it as a young Dunnock.


I was sure that the Grey Herons on the island had abandoned any further attempt to breed, but I was wrong. There was the familiar clattering sound of a heron chick begging to be fed, and an adult could be indistinctly seen standing on a nest in a birch tree.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull's mate was enjoying her share of their breakfast.


He had had enough, and was preening.


When she was also satisfied, she left it and went into the lake to wash the blood off her face.


A Carrion Crow finished off the remains unmolested by either gull. Note how much more efficiently a crow can eat a pigeon thanks to its prehensile feet, which can hold it down while pecking.


Ahmet Amerikali got a distant but remarkable picture of a Great Crested Grebe catching a large pike. It managed to swallow it, and caught a smaller one later.


The grebes from the east end of the island stationed themselves next to the hull of the electric boat. Bringing a fish woke up the dozing chicks ...


... and the quicker of the two got it.


With three pairs of breeding grebes claiming territories the Long Water is getting a bit crowded, and there was a chase up the lake.


Mark has been keeping an eye on the Little Grebes in St  James's Park, and got a good picture of an adult and one of the two chicks.


The Coots nesting at the Serpentine outflow have been busy for literally months, and all they have to show for it is one egg. This pair have been nesting here for years. Maybe they're getting old.


The pair that built the huge nest under the Dell restaurant balcony have lost one brood of chicks to the gulls, and so far haven't been able to lay any more eggs.


Neil photographed a fly on a ragwort flower but, despite considerable searching, couldn't identify its species. Update: Conehead 54 has identified it as Eriothrix rufomaculata.


'Quivering like an aspen' is a stock phrase in romantic novels. An aspen is a species of poplar, Populus tremula, and it really does quiver. The convex surface of the leaf makes it aerodynamically unstable in quite a light breeze, and the flat leaf stalk allows it to move easily.


What Boris Johnson has in store for us all.

15 comments:

  1. The quivering sound of the Aspen is like music to my ears... Also it appears to have live insects...
    Love the video...

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  2. Could that fly be a tachind fly? Sadly I can't help more.

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  3. Agree it's one of the parasitic tachinid flies-specifically Eriothrix rufomaculta.

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  4. should have said rufomaculata

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  5. Love to see Long-Tailed Tits again. I've missed them.

    I have never seen an aspen that I know - now I understand about the "tremula" part!

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    1. I'd never really recognised an aspen before, just seeing a tree with poplar-like leaves. But this one was quivering so much in the light breeze that I waited for a lull in the wind, photographed a bunch of leaves, and ran the picture through PlantNet, and lo and behold it was an aspen.

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    2. Such a lovely explanation about the trembling trees...tha tha for plantnet app...but ...

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  6. To be precise, rather than the shape of the leaves, it's the flat petiole (=leaf stalk) that allows them to tremble
    Mario

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    1. Thank you. But a flat leaf wouldn't tremble so much in a light wind.

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  7. Ralph, could I ask where the aspen is located in the park? Thank you.

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    1. On the south side of the Serpentine nest to the path, about 100 yards from the east end.

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  8. I am so bad with directions, north South East and West but .. just walk and walk and walk...

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