Wednesday 27 January 2021

There was a pair of Nuthatches on the edge of the Flower Walk near Queen's Gate. The male was singing and chasing the female.


A Great Tit sounded agitated at first, but calmed down and started to sing. Great Tit song is repetitive but varies a lot between individuals, and can have any number of notes from 1 to 11 (the most I've heard, anyway).


A Long-Tailed Tit hung casually by one foot while eating a mealworm from the feeder in the Dell.


The familiar Blue Tit by the Long Water ate a pine nut I had given it.


Just down the path, this Robin is now coming out to be fed.


A male Feral Pigeon did his best to impress a female. The two are exactly the same colour, and I have noticed that they tend to prefer mates that look like themselves.


A Carrion Crow played with a dirty old plastic cup it had fished out of the lake. This made interesting crinkling noises when pecked.


A new Jay turned up to demand a peanut. Most of the Jays are very smart, but this one looks distinctly tatty.


The male Peregrine was on the tower.


Young Herring Gulls loafed in the Diana fountain.


The Black-Headed Gulls are beginning to develop the black (well actually very dark brown) heads of their spring breeding plumage. This group shows the various stages. They don't breed in the park, and may go off anywhere from rubbish dumps in outer London to as far away as Finland.


A pair of Coots are building a nest on the boat platform, an exposed and thoroughly unsuitable place.


The Red-Crested Pochard in the Italian Garden was standing tall and fluffing up his head in front of the female Mallard. He must resent the way she is now paying more attention to the new Mallard drake than to him.


The Black Swan was on the grass beside the Round Pond showing off its extraordinarily long neck.

12 comments:

  1. Some really stunning shots of the exotica- the Black Swan & the RC Pochard & one of the finest photos of Feral Pigeons- Blue chequer types I've seen. They do look exquisite here!

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    1. Thank you. I hadn't known the name of that common colour variation.

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  2. Came across aprox 100 redwing feeding on the playing field behind the embassies this afternoon.

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    1. Thanks. Will go and have a look in the morning.

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  3. How elegant and graceful, and yet powerful, does the Black Swan look.

    Have been enjoying the series of pictures of Long-Tailed Tits performing acrobatics while holding on to their mealworms. They are as nimble and athletic as they are cute.

    I always liked listening to Great Tits. I learned some time ago that in English they say "tea-cher, tea-cher, tea-cher".

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    1. Some of them say 'tea-cher', but a lot have quite different songs. It's said that if you hear a bird song you don't recognise it's probably a Great Tit.

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  4. Interesting your recent shots of a Long-tailed Tit hanging with one foot while holding its food in the other. I found this blog post on the subject. Jim

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    1. Thank you. This behaviour seems to be routine at the mealworm feeder simply because a mealworm is too long for a Long-Tailed Tit to swallow in one go, so it has to be held in one foot and nibbled.

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    2. But none of the Paridae do it, do they? Does it reflect any physical differences in the Aegithalidae, or some advance in co-ordination whereby they can react faster to danger in that position, compared with perching upright and holding the food against their perch? Jim

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    3. I think that LTTs grasp their food with a free foot because their feet are not large enough to hold the food while gripping the twig they are perching on. I have noticed that when a Great or Blue Tit is disturbed while eating a seed clamped against a twig, it can fly off still holding the seed, which suggests extra dexterity as well as greater size and strength. Can perching birds move their toes independently? I don't know. You wouldn't think there was any room for muscles in their feet. But owls can move their outer front toe horizontally, changing from the Ψ arrangement they use for walking on the ground to the Χ shape they use when perching on a branch or grabbing mice.

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    4. And the parrot family will stand while eating food held with one claw, but on other occasions may hang upside down. I see that Ospreys and turacos can also swivel the outer toe like owls, curious. Jim

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    5. One can see the usefulness of a zygodactyl (X) foot for an osprey in seizing a fish. Possibly it's useful for parrots and turacos in holding fruit, but since this food doesn't usually try to escape the advantage is less clear cut.

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