This is the first time I've seen two Grey Herons together on a nest in this 2020-21 season. One of them was building up the nest with twigs, which it needs as at present it's too small to be used.
The female Peregrine was on the tower.
The male flew in holding a small prey which I couldn't get a clear shot of ...
... and passed it to her in midair, after which he perched on the tower.
The massacre of crayfish continues. Unlike yesterday's young Herring Gull, this one clearly knew how to proceed.
A Common Gull buzzed three others with a clearance of a fraction of an inch, causing one to look up in alarm.
There were two Coal Tits in the leaf yard, and Neil and I managed to persuade them to come down to the railings to take food. But I don't think they will ever be as bold as the female near the bridge.
There were also two Robins, one of which will come to your hand to take food ...
... and a Goldcrest in the yew tree.
Two good pictures by Neil: one of the Chaffinch family near the bridge ...
... and the Jay near the Serpentine Gallery, which is always waiting to grab a peanut in flight if you hold one up for it.
A pair of Rose-Ringed Parakeets examined a hole in an oak near the Albert Memorial.
This is a natural hole, but Green Woodpeckers have nested here and there are also several of their holes which the parakeets have now hijacked.
A Starling at the Lido restaurant outshone some tatty polyanthus primroses.
The hopeless pair of Egyptian Geese were making a racket on the sawn-off poplar tree near Peter Pan. I do hope they are now too old to breed, as it's sad watching them lose all their young as they invariably do.
A Common Pochard drake dived in the Serpentine. It's the only one on the Serpentine, and there are a few more on the Long Water which have returned after over 60 winter migrants suddenly left a couple of months ago.
There were five kinds of duck at the Vista: Mallard, Gadwall, Shoveller, Pochard and Tufted Duck.
The female Shoveller stared at the camera over her enormous bill.
Always wondered why gulls love to buzz other gulls. Just as much as they love landing precisely on top of other gulls if they possible can when there is plenty of space available. Being so good at flying, it must be as deliberate as Moorhens' enjoyable climbing hobby.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it asserts their status in the pecking order. Sometimes you see a junior gull trying and failing to knock a senior off its perch.
DeleteYesterday I did my autumn/winter monthly waterbird count on the Pen Ponds in Richmond Park &numbers were very low-much lower than preceding months. Only 6 Pochard-sometimes more than 10 times this number. All the Great-crested Grebes had gone-12 in September. I guess the mild conditions aren't encouraging birds to leave the continent? Common Gulls were the only species to buck the trend with 75 individuals.
ReplyDeleteStill a couple of Dartford Warblers-one showing very well in front of me was some compensation!
Lovely shots of Coal Tit & Goldcrest. The latter species still doesn't seemed to have fully recovered in numbers since the "beast from the east".
A couple
We still have plenty of Goldcrests, perhaps protected by inner city warmth. But I'm baffled by the desertion of the Pochards.
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