Sunday 23 May 2021

The pair of Grey Wagtails collected insects for their young in the Italian Garden fountains. You can see that the male has a black bib, the female a smaller grey one. They have been here for several days, indicating that their nest must be quite near.


Two young ones were in their usual place at the Lido restaurant.


A family of Long-Tailed Tits worked its way along the shrubbery below the Triangle car park. This is one of the fledglings.


The two young Grey Herons in the second nest on the island are still unable to fly, but they can climb around in their tree and exercise their wings with a vigorous flap.


One of the older three was in the Diana fountain. It will have to discover that there aren't any fish there.


A Great Crested Grebe on the Long Water carried the two chicks.


The Coots from the nest on the post seem to have saved at least two chicks from the gulls. They were just visible through the bushes beside the Long Water, sensibly staying near cover.


The solitary Coot chick at the boathouse was fed by a parent.


There is a new Coot nest on the buoys at the Lido swimming area, midway between the first two. It's an unattractively soggy construction.


The Mute Swans have had a bad couple of days. We already knew that the pair on the Long Water are down to four cygnets ...


... but now the pair east of the Lido are down to three ...


... and the pair at the Lido restaurant terrace have only two, having lost the other two overnight.


It's not clear why they have had such ill luck. There are fewer Herring Gulls than usual.

Sadly but inevitably, the Mandarins on the Serpentine have lost all their ducklings. There were two pairs at the Lido ...


... plus a single drake.


However, a pair of Greylag Geese have eleven new goslings.


Joan Chatterley reports that there are so many Greylag goslings in St James's Park that she can no longer count them -- but no Canada goslings. It has been much the same here, with only one pair of Canadas breeding and then losing their young. I have no idea why.

She sent two pictures, one of a Black Swan -- not the one in the odd trio -- nesting in the reeds with a single egg. That nest has been there for some time, but this is the first view into it.


The trio still have seven cygnets, a much better performance than the swans in our park. Having two mothers must help.

4 comments:

  1. I was in the park this morning and it was full of swifts. There was a heavy shower, and many flew low over the lake. I had some wonderful views of them

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    1. The wetter it is, the lower the insects go, and the Swifts with them.

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  2. Bad news all around today. At least the two Grebe babies appear to be holding on.

    The Heron is goose-stepping!

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    Replies
    1. Hoping for the best with the grebe chicks, but it really is too early in the peculiar ecology of the lake.

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