But another one at the Lido was looking perfectly comfortable and staring at me until I gave it a peanut.
A Feral Pigeon sunbathed.
A Magpie came down to examine the remains of another pigeon that had fallen victim to the notorious Lesser Black-Backed Gull. This had been picked almost clean, and it only found a pitiful shred of meat and hopped away in disgust.
A Rose-Ringed Parakeet near the leaf yard looked disgruntled because no one had turned up to feed it.
I met Ahmet Amerikali, who was diligently photographing small birds lurking in the shade of the shrubbery near the bridge, and will probably have some good pictures for us tomorrow. All I could get was a female Chaffinch.
One of the Hobbies was distantly visible, heading off towards Kensington Gardens.
The young Sparrowhawk was calling incessantly from the usual plane tree near New Lodge. It was only partly visible through the leaves and I couldn't get a usable picture, so here is a good one taken by Takaki Nemoto a few days ago.
A young Grey Heron in the Italian Garden was looking for fish in a fountain pool, but they wouldn't come within reach ...
... so it flew over to one of the planters and panted to cool down.
No one was feeding the Mute Swans at Peter Pan either, so they had to eat algae, which of course are much better for them than the rubbish the visitors give them.
One way of keeping cool. This was photographed across the Long Water, looking westward at the Vista.
A shoal of young carp rushed along the edge of the Serpentine. They didn't seem to have any motive for this -- maybe they just felt the need for speed.
Some young perch, identifiable by their stripes, had already arrived at the end of the lake.
That's quite a powerful jump. I thought at first it was an impressive case of "old man strength", but on closer inspection he is younger than he looks.
ReplyDeleteSwans don't like their vegetables too much, it seems. I wonder if they'd like pizza better, like humans.
Why does the Sparrowhawk cry and call so often? Perhaps it can see its parents somewhere?
That Crow is clearly very happy to pose among the pretty flowers. To be given a peanut for its trouble is the icing on the cake.
I thought the man was going to hit bottom in the knee-deep water at the edge, but by running and going in at as shallow an angle as possible he managed not to. He could have saved himself a lot of effort by just walking in, but some people just gotta have a splash.
DeleteThe young Sparrowhawk's parents are sporadically visible in the sky but so far no one has spotted them turning up with a meal.
That crow waits for me every day. It was annoyed by the delay caused by photographing it before I produced the daily peanut.
Think that for the low, low price of a daily peanut you are entitled to boast of having your very own Crow!
DeleteI have eight regular crow customers, and attract attention in the local supermarket when buying peanuts by the rucksack-full.
DeleteI went to the parks in the morning to avoid the heatwave....
ReplyDeleteOn my way home via the Italian gardens I saw the heron in your blog stalking and intimidating a mama moorhen and her little chick...
Two young ladies were also watching the predatory nature of the heron...and ishowed them where the baby moorhen is...
They took pics...
Not much of a heatwave really, a few pleasantly hot days but nothing to stop activity. We had a proper heatwave in 1976 which went on for several months. Of course that was before the media started screaming about 'global warming' -- at the time, the fashionable panic was about a new ice age.
DeleteYes, I certainly remember vividly '76 heatwave...there were so many government advice on not to consume too much water ...
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