Thursday 10 September 2020

A Cormorant standing on a chain at the island hauled itself up awkwardly on to a post.




There is competition for places on the posts. A Black-Headed Gull looked down apprehensively to see if a teenage Moorhen was about to climb up and push it off, but the young bird didn't dare. Adult Moorhens can knock these gulls off easily.


A young Herring Gull had caught a small pike and was about to eat it. I don't think it was a fair catch, as the pike was tangled in a bit of netting from which the gull pulled it out.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-backed Gull stretched a wing and a leg.


The dominant swans on the Long Water have taken back the gravel strip again after the other swans that nested there reclaimed it for one day. The male swan was preening smugly with his three teenage cygnets.


The Black Swan preened its complicated white wings and had a flap to settle the feathers.


An Egyptian Goose had a thorough wash and a flap. I think this is the bird I photographed yesterday which was moulting very late and had only just started to regrow its flight feathers.


A Grey Heron stood in the odd pose that Herons strike when they're sunbathing.


The Grey Wagtail in the Dell caught a midge.


The young Starlings have now all grown their beautiful adult feathers.


A picture by Mark Williams: a young male Blackbird halfway into its first set of black feathers. It was waiting for a place in the bird bath in the Flower Walk, which was being monopolised by two Wood Pigeons.


A male Chaffinch perched on a holly tree near the bridge.


A Small White butterfly perched on a Verbena bonariensis flower head.


A Honeybee had no difficulty hanging on the delicate upside-down flowers of borage ...


... but a very large Buff-Tailed Bumblebee really had to hold on tight.

2 comments:

  1. Poor chunky Bumblebee, clinging on for dear life. Still, the best things in life are chubby, as they say.

    The video does an excellent job of showing how complex the arrangement of the feathers in the Black Swan's wings are.

    I was cheering for that Moorhen. Now I am disappointed.

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    Replies
    1. I wonder whether that Bumblebee was a queen. It was absolutely huge, with an unusually dark tip to its abdomen.

      The Moorhen will grow up to scare Black-Headed Gulls off with a mere glance,

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