A Song Thrush ignored the dim winter day and sang cheerfully near the leaf yard.
A pity about the noise of machinery in the background, but in the park you have to take your chances with audio recording.
A Robin on a bench in the Rose Garden stared suspiciously at the camera. It will now tolerate being photographed because it knows it will get some food afterwards.
The same with a Great Tit near the bridge ...
... and a Magpie beside the Long Water.
Three Carrion Crows enjoyed a wash in the Serpentine.
The Grey Heron at the west end of the island was hard at work enlarging the pair's nest.
Cormorants perched on a fallen Lombardy poplar in the Long Water.
One of them caught a fish, which it had to separate from a tangle of algae.
Although some of the Great Crested Grebes are now in breeding plumage, this one at the west end of the island is still in its plain winter outfit.
The Long Water was partly frozen after another frosty night. Black-Headed Gulls stood on the ice while Canada Geese rushed around in the unfrozen part, disturbing the teenage Mute Swans.
The Coots were having a hard time, because the ice was too thin for them to stand on and uncomfortable to swim through.
A Black-Headed Gull stared contemptuously at a Coot building another doomed nest on a post at Peter Pan.
A Moorhen mooned a rival, showing its white tail feathers. This is a Moorhen's standard threat display.
A pair of Mallards were outlined against a remaining patch of snow in the Dell.
A Mallard and a Moorhen exchanged hostile stares on the fallen willow near the bridge. Both like to use this branch as a perch.
A Shoveller cruised rapidly across the Vista, feeding as it went.
I've never seen a moorhen moon before - thank you for that moment of joy.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fine gesture of contempt, not even looking at the rival.
DeleteI enjoy the -often incongruous seeming - background soundscapes.
ReplyDeleteI usually shoot far more video than needed and when possible edit out loud banal conversations, police sirens, helicopters and leaf blowers. The park is a noisy place.
DeleteI actually like listening to background chatter sometimes. I make it a game to guess which language they are speaking, and sometimes I am delighted to find Spanish being spoken.
DeleteI am extremely happy to report that a Blackbird chose to keep me awake by singing in the wee hours of the night. This is the first time of the year. I had missed being kept from falling sleep by the local Blackbirds.
I almost lost it with the mooning Moorhen.
For the past few years I have had a Blackbird outside my living room window and it sings late and early, kept awake by the streetlights -- luckily urban birds seem to cope with this disturbance. It's a glorious reminder that beyond human madness life goes on as normal. I do hope it'll still be here this spring. It's much needed.
DeleteBut several years ago I was talking to an Australian girl who had just moved to London. 'There's this bloody bird outside my window,' she said. 'It makes a horrible noise and wakes me up early every morning.' Questioning established that it was a Blackbird. A matter of what you're used to, I suppose.
I don't mind multilingual background chatter in videos, and in the park an actual majority of the people you hear are speaking a foreign language. But loud English voices talking about relationships or feelings or office politics are very distracting, and I cut them out wherever it's possible or reduce the volume when it isn't.