Tuesday 4 August 2020

The young Sparrowhawk was in the same tree as yesterday, and made itself easy to find by calling constantly. The tree is a tall plane just to the west of New Lodge, the small house north of the Old Police House.

 

I couldn't find any Hobbies, however.

Both the young Little Owl ...


... and its mother were in their usual separate lime trees.


A Blackbird perched on a hawthorn branch. The hawthorn fruits are ripening, and most of them on this tree have already been eaten.


A Wood Pigeon sat in the water at the top of the Dell waterfall. They do like bathing.


In the stream at the bottom, a Moorhen and a chick perched on a rock. I don't know how many chicks there are, as they are mostly kept hidden.


I gave the Moorhens at the bridge some sunflower hearts to try to bring them all into the picture, but of course all kinds of other birds piled in too.


A Great Crested Grebe from the west end of the island thought that its chicks were now big enough to swim for themselves, and dumped them twice in quick succession. The chicks thought otherwise, and climbed back on.


The chicks from the east end are now quite large and have stopped trying to hitch a ride.


Some more Red-Crested Pochards have turned up at the island. They come and go apparently at random, I think from the population in St James's Park.


A Greylag Goose went carefully through the mixed weeds growing on the edge of the shrubbery, selecting those that were good to eat.


A flight of Greylags sped past the Dell restaurant, which is now doing good business after the great panic.


The return of customers has also brought back the resident Dunnock, which hunts for insects feeding on the crumbs spilt on the terrace.


A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee got covered with pollen as it browsed on a cardoon in the Rose Garden. Cardoons are like giant thistles or miniature globe artichokes, and the heads are edible.


A Meadow Brown butterfly on Buck Hill was very hard to see in the brown meadow.

4 comments:

  1. Trucking/tracking the trail of your blogs...
    I walked the parks in the mornings because it's cooler...mostly all the locations...the birds, bee and butterfly are so glorious. .
    The sparrowhawk, the owlet and Mama owl pics are awesome...

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  2. The Grebes' chicks trying to climb on top of their parents are melting my heart. They couldn't be more lovable if they tried.

    Well, you did get all the Moorhens into the shot. All the birds who joined in the free buffet are just a bonus.

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    Replies
    1. I like the way the grebe chicks make their parents revolve as they try to climb on.

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