Thursday 17 September 2020

I've revised this blog post to get the pictures back to normal. They can now be clicked on to enlarge them. But Blogger's dreadful new interface makes it take four times as long as previously to assemble the blog, as pictures now have to be inserted one at a time.

Two days ago I heard the Spotted Flycatchers in the same place as before, near Queen's Gate, but they stayed out of sight and I didn't get a picture. Today they were near the bridge flying out from an almost dead larch tree. This is a place that Spotted Flycatchers used last year, and it seems likely that it's the same pair.


The Hobbies are still here, and I got a distant shot of one flying over a plane tree north of the Serpentine.

Several Blackcaps could be heard ticking around the Long Water.

A Wren was also ticking at some danger in a reed bed.

A flight of Long-Tailed Tits passed along the edge of the Serpentine.

The second Grey Wagtail waded across the waterfall in the Dell.

A Magpie ate an apple that someone had put out for the Rose-Ringed Parakeets.

Another showed off its iridescent wings and tail in a horse chestnut tree.

The horse chestnuts have lost their leaves prematurely owing to infestation by Leaf Miner moth.

Jackdaws have taken over the hole in the chestnut tree near the leaf yard where the Little Owls used to be. One of them fetched out an acorn. They seem to be using it as a store.

Squirrels have occupied the hole in the lime tree on Buck Hill used by the Little Owls.


But there is good news: both the female owl and the male have recently been heard. The female was in one of the horse chestnuts next to the Kensington Gardens offices, where she nested a few years ago after being frightened out of her usual tree by Carrion Crows nesting in the top branches.

There are Willow Emerald damselflies all around the Long Water at the moment. For some reason they like perching on the spikes of the iron railings.


Another preferred a bramble.

A female Common Darter dragonfly, less showy than the bright red male, perched on a dry stem in the Rose Garden.

A Common Blue butterfly took a moment of rest on a leaf.

15 comments:

  1. Good photos, though, despite the formatting. Good luck with the potential new site.
    I've never seen so many squirrels together without fighting. Is this a nuclear family?

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    1. It must be a family, I think. I was very surprised to see three together in peace.

      This new Blogger system is abominable. I'm trying to make it behave, but it's completely chaotic. Pictures are almost impossible to place accurately, can no longer be enlarged by clicking on them, and disappear if you try to adjust their position.

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    2. I dislike it much when they change things without warning. Or indeed without asking if we the users would like the change.

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    3. Standard behaviour for Google. They keep wrecking things that worked perfectly well. Have just endured major Microsoft updates on two computers, aargh.

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  2. That Hobby actually looks Hobby-like! Whenever I tried to draw flying Hobby outlines from memory they normally looked nothing like most photos. Jim

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    1. It was momentarily in an exaggerated Hobby attitude. It's at times like this that you appreciate the artistry of the Collins Bird Guide artists Dan Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström in getting exactly the essence of the bird.

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  3. I agree, excellent pictures, and as enjoyable as always. It's days like this where one gets the full measure of just how hard Ralph works to keep our beloved blog in peak fighting condition. We will follow you anywhere you move your blog.

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    1. I am moderately encouraged by checking what's available in WordPress. But you will have to endure several days of indifferent medium-sized pictures before I get it working well enough for publication.

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  4. A productive day for birds & insects Ralph! I finally caught up with a couple of Spotted Flycatchers last week at Ruislip.

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    1. It seems that our Whinchats are still here too on Buck Hill.

      Afraid that the reproduction of pictures is going to be poor until I can reestablish the blog in WordPress. This move is the last thing I wanted, but Blogger have wrecked their own product. Typical Google behaviour.

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    2. That is a shame Ralph. People just love to change things when they are still fine & then mess up!

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  5. I'm struggling as well, loading pictures is a nightmare and it's often easier to abandon them and start again. If I was trying to do a daily blog I'd be homicidal. Mine is an as and when usually every few weeks so I can cope. Hope you get sorted.

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    1. Don't try to upload multiple pictures -- they've broken this ability and all pictures except the first are uncontrollable. Instead, place the cursor where you want each picture to go and upload each one separately.

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  6. Cheers, thanks I'll have a go at that next time.

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