It was a frosty day and the Long Water was partly frozen. Black-Headed Gulls perched on the ice, ignoring the chill because they have clever heat exchangers in the circulation to their legs.
Another gull found a large piece of bread, and struggled to swallow it.
A young Herring Gull saw a large bit of branch dropped by a dog and came over to see if it had anything edible or could be played with. It scratched its chin thoughtfully, then swam away.
A Great Crested Grebe dozed peacefully at the island.
A Moorhen perched on the collapsed willow tree at the bridge ...
... and a young Mute Swan mooched underneath.
On the grassy bank at the back of the Lido, swans cropped the grass and a Lesser Black-Backed Gull and a Magpie looked for worms.
At Peter Pan. a Tufted drake got a bit too close to a Mute Swan and had to retreat to avoid being pecked.
The Red-Crested Pochard and his two Mallard companions were in the Italian Garden.
Goldfinches were back on the teasels in the Rose Garden, and today I was able to get close enough for a better picture.
The Kingfisher was on the Long Water, but in an awkwardly distant place diagonally across the lake from Peter Pan.
I hope to get a closer video before it leaves.
Neil filmed a Coal Tit coming to his hand again and again in a flowering wintersweet bush near the Albert Memorial. There was also one visit from a Great Tit.
Here are his pictures of both of them on the same bush.
A Robin stood on a fallen branch in the woodland at the foot of Buck Hill.
A pair of Carrion Crows perched amicably on the weeping beech in the Dell.
That robin looks uncharacteristically grumpy - perhaps he's been listening to the news...
ReplyDeleteI think Robins are too sensible to listen to what passes for news these days.
DeleteClever Tuftie, getting away unscathed. They have such a funny way of swimming underwater.
ReplyDeleteThere can be no foul mood or sad day if birds are there to lift one's mood.
It's impossible not to see Tufted Ducks as smiling, and it makes you smile back.
DeleteOut of interest how are visitor numbers compared to normal? According to the press there are loads of people in Hyde Park - but I am not sure they are telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteNear normal at the weekend, but not crowded. The newspapers are trying to get a worse lockdown against the wishes of their readers, a strange situation explainable only by government pressure on them.
DeleteThanks a lot for that. I think some of their readers DO want a stricter lockdown (I don't) however some people would say yes to almost anything. I am pretty sure they would be happy if the Government stopped us buying food and just dropped out packets of essentials outside their houses.
DeleteOpinion polls give the results that those who run them want. Otherwise they wouldn't bother to conduct them.
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