It was a windy day, and a Wood Pigeon had to hang on tight to eat holly berries ...
... but the sunshine was warm enough for Feral Pigeons to bask in the shelter of the Dell.
As the supply of insects dwindles, the small birds are getting hungrier. A lot of Great Tits flew out to be fed.
A little pool formed by a broken drain in the Dell is a favourite place for Carrion Crows to bathe and drink.
I wish the park hadn't been invaded by Rose-Ringed Parakeets, but people do enjoy feeding them.
A Magpie looked down disapprovingly.
Starlings foraged along the edge of the Serpentine ...
... and Moorhen looked for small edible creatures in a carpet of fallen leaves.
A Cormorant had to hold its wings horizontal and grip the edge of the post with its toes to avoid being blown off.
I hadn't seen this Black-Headed Gull, ring number EY63684, since 2017, though it has probably been coming to the Serpentine every autumn. It was ringed in Kensington Gardens by Roy Sanderson.
A Common Gull trotted along the edge of the Round Pond ...
... where the Black Swan was loitering stylishly.
Greylag Geese circled the Serpentine ...
... and came down to feed in the Diana fountain enclosure.
A Mute Swan was more than a match for this little dog allowed to harass the waterfowl by its stupid owner. If only it were always so.
This is the least seen of the three Bar Headed x Greylag Goose hybrids that visit from St James's Park. Its head markings are less clear than those of the other two.
A few more Shovellers have appeared on the Long Water, though we don't get nearly as many as we did a few years ago. This is probably due to the opening of the Wetland Centre and other wildfowl reserves along the Thames, which gives them a more agreeable habitat than a city lake.
I can't get enough of hand-feeding videos. The close-ups of the Great Tits were excellent. It must not be easy to hold so steady with such a heavy camera in the other hand.
ReplyDeleteI imagine Magpies don't like the parakeets' gaudiness either, being so elegantly pied themselves.
I shoot video on a small light bridge camera, a Panasonic Lumix FZ82. It's easy to work with one hand and the video quality is good. There's little point in using a big camera for ordinary HD video, as the image size for this medium is only 1920 x 1080 pixels. For comparison, the image size on my big camera is 9504 x 6336.
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