... and later abandoned it entirely.
The Diana fountain enclosure is one of the Herring Gulls' favourite places to look for worms, all the more so now that it is closed because of the Great Panic. This gull's dancing technique was very effective and brought up two in quick succession.
Two of this year's Black-Headed Gulls on the Long Water. This one is still in completely juvenile plumage ...
... but this one is a little older, and has the grey and brown plumage that it will wear until it moults again next year.
A Grey Heron was after the small fish that cluster in the shallow water off the Dell restaurant terrace.
Another was idly playing with a dead leaf in the dry Diana fountain.
A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine felt a bit sleepy ...
... so he had a good flap to wake himself up.
I went to look at the new blonde Egyptian Goose at the Round Pond. She is not as pale as Blondie and has darker flight feathers with a barred pattern. There is a similarly marked Egyptian on the Serpentine.
A pair of Red-Crested Pochards fed together on the Long Water. The drake drove off a rival.
Ahmet Amerikali found a Nuthatch in the leaf yard, the first that has been seen here for months. It used to be the best place for them, but the mob of Rose-Ringed Parakeets attracted by people feeding them has had a very bad effect on native species.
He also found a female Blackcap in the same place.
Now that autumn has suddenly descended on us, it's the mushroom season. Neil was out photographing some.
This looks like the ordinary Ink Cap, Coprinopsis atramentarius, previously Coprinus comatus.
This looks like a Horse Mushroom, Agaricus arvensis. Instructed by our mushroom expert Mario, I know now that the the real identifier for this species is that it smells slightly of aniseed.
I am fairly confident that this is a Little Japanese Umbrella, Parasola plicatilis, formerly Coprinus plicatilis.
Neil though that this was a Russula, but there are lots of species in the genus. The ordinary test for a Russula is to prod the gills, which should be very brittle and break rather than bend.
Is it autumn already? Here it is significatively cooler, but temperatures are expected to climb to 35ºC again by the end of next week. I wish it was autumn already here as well!
ReplyDeleteDoes Pigeon Killer usually hunt twice a day? He is getting more and more efficient, so much so that he can glut himself and still leave most of the meal uneaten.
It isn't supposed to be autumn yet, but it has suddenly got quite cold. In Britain you can never know what is going to happen.
DeleteI have known that gull to kill three times in a day. He takes the opportunity when it comes, and thinks about whether he is hungry afterwards.
Glad to see you have a Nuthatch again! The last couple of weekends I've had one back in Ten Acre Wood.
ReplyDeleteGood to see the variety of fungi-not an area I'm very expert, but love looking at them. Perhaps with recent rains combined with some warmth it will be a bountiful season for them?
I'm not much good at fungi either, but Mario has shown me that the park has an impressive range of them. I suppose the deliberate variety of the trees planted here helps with that.
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