Sunday 28 March 2021

The Long-Tailed Tits nesting at the edge of the Diana fountain enclosure were collecting spider webs from the Lido restaurant.



One of the pair near the Italian Garden perched in an alder tree.


In an Italian alder near the bridge (note the difference in the position of the black fruits) a Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling. It's the male of a pair that nest beside the Long Water.


A Robin posed on a felled tree trunk at the foot of Buck Hill.


A Rose-Ringed Parakeet at the leaf yard took an apple into a secluded spot so it could eat it without interference.


Ahmet Amerikali photographed a Wren near the bridge. There are Wrens all round the lake, making quite a noise at the moment.


Neil managed to make his favourite Coal Tit pose in the pretty pink flowers of a currant bush. This was done by bribery with pine nuts, with a very successful result.


A brisk wind raised waves on the Round Pond that broke on the shore. It seems that this washes up small edible creatures of some kind -- insect larvae or water fleas -- and Pied Wagtails are often seen hunting in the splash area.


Unlike Herring Gulls, Common Gulls and Black-Headed Gulls, Lesser Black-Backed Gulls don't usually do the pattering dance to bring up worms. (I have seen one dancing just once.) This one is pulling up tufts of grass looking for them. I took a series of close-up photographs of what it was pulling up, and couldn't see a worm in any of them. Moral: learn to dance.


There was a good deal of clattering coming from the Grey Heron nest with the chick, but the chick itself wasn't visible. The pair from the top nest came down and stood on one of the wire baskets that surround the island, which were supposed to be full of water plants -- not a successful experiment but at last it gives the herons a fishing station.


Every year a pair of Coots make a nest on the plastic buoys surrounding the Lido swimming area. It never succeeds. As Dr Johnson said when a man married for the second time, it is the triumph of hope over experience.


Speaking of which, there are at least a dozen Tawny Owl boxes in the park, and as far as I know none of them has ever attracted an owl. But a new one has just been installed on the island. A pair of Stock Doves have taken it.


More from the pair of Mute Swans that trampled down the netting around the reed bed, got in, and started making a nest which involved trashing a large area of reeds. The net was put up again with a wire along the top so that they couldn't pull it down. So they have pushed in the bottom of the netting and got in underneath.


As usual, the Black Swan was following a male Mute Swan around making Black Swan gestures and calls which Mute Swans simply don't understand.


One of the blond Egyptian goslings beside the Serpentine. There are still six goslings here.


The brood at the Henry Moore sculpture were only partly visible and couldn't be counted.

A cigarette butt thrown into a rubbish bin in Kensington Gardens started a fire. Luckily the fire station is at the west edge of the gardens, and they arrived promptly to put it out. When the grass dries out in summer there is a risk of bigger fires, and it's surprising that the London parks haven't had a major one for as long as I can remember. But there was a serious grass fire at Wanstead Flats a couple of years ago.

5 comments:

  1. That is one thing I have always wondered at, how with so much dried grass everywhere there are so very few fires. I suppose park management has the situation firmly in hand.

    Is she busking? I'm not sure if female swans can busk, or if the gesture means the same as when a male swan does it.

    Cheers for the determined swans. Those two would give coots a run for their money (incidentally, is it always the same pair of Coots making their nest in such an impossible place?).

    Great pictures of the Long Tailed Tit collecting spider webs!

    I wonder if any enterprising Herring Gull would consider opening a dance academy. It'd make a killing.

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  2. I don't think the park management has anything firmly in hand. There are notice telling people not to light barbecues, but they still do. Richmond Park is particularly at risk, with huge areas of bracken that is tinder dry in a dry spell in autumn.

    I really have no idea what's going through the Black Swan's head. The gestures and calls mean no more to me than they do to a Mute Swan. We need an Australian swan whisperer.

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  3. Lovely to see the Long-tailed Tits collecting the spider webs for their nests.

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    1. The LTTs near the Italian Garden have moved on to collecting feathers, so they're lining their nests now. Didn't get a clear view today, but it will take them a while as they need thousands of little feathers for the lining. Imagine having to build your own house once a year.

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  4. A herculean task indeed, Ralph. Exquisite though!

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