A Blue Tit perched among brown oak leaves.
Another delicately picked at a pine nut I gave it. When it had finished it was clearly expecting a second one, and went back to the same bramble stem to eat it.
A male and a female Chaffinch looked for seeds spilt from a feeder in the tree above.
A pair of Jackdaws are now settled in the hole in the sweet chestnut tree by the leaf yard that used to belong to a pair of Little Owls.
A Carrion Crow had just had a bath, and dried and preened in a willow next to the bridge. The sound in the background is a school party passing along the bridge.
A Grey Heron in the same tree looked at its traditional enemy with annoyance.
At the back of the Lido the ivy flowers are beginning to turn into berries. Wood Pigeons don't seem to mind how unripe and hard berries are. There may still be a bit of sweet nectar left over from the flowers.
On the ground below a Field Marigold had come into flower long after the others were over.
At the leaf yard a Rose-Ringed Parakeet ate an apple in the middle of the path, ignoring people passing by on either side.
They are beginning to look for holes to shelter in when the weather gets cold. This hole in a plane tree near the small boathouses used to belong to Starlings, but the parakeets have driven them out.
Black-Headed Gulls spaced themselves out on the boathouse roof.
The female Peregrine was back on the tower this morning, alone.
A Cormorant dried its wings on a post under the bridge.
The third Bar-Headed x Greylag Goose hybrid has been in the park for several weeks now, though its two siblings which came here in June to moult went back to St James's Park as soon as they could fly again.
The horse-drawn mower took a turn round Buck Hill. It has to be said that this 19th century machine doesn't mow very well, but it gives the splendid Shire horses a bit of exercise. The mower used to have steel wheels but has been refitted with modern ones which give better traction to work the cutter bar.
What splendid horses! I always liked those heavy, large, even-tempered draught horses much better than purebreds.
ReplyDeleteThe Blue Tit is so dainty, with excellent table manners.
In former times the grass in the park was kept neat by a flock of sheep, which were moved from place to place inside a temporary fence made of wattle hurdles. The shepherd lived in a cottage at the east end of the park. hence the place name Shepherd Market. The cottage was destroyed by bombing in the war.
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