Thursday 27 May 2021

Young Long-Tailed Tits in a hawthorn near the Rose Garden, well fed by their parents, had a quiet moment in the sunshine.

A Blue Tit looked for insects in the same tree.

A Chiffchaff sang beside the Long Water.

A Magpie bathed in the pool at the top of the Dell waterfall.

The male Grey Wagtail was busy in the Italian Garden, catching some insects on foot and some flying. When he had as much as he could carry, he disappeared through the plane trees on the edge of the park.

Also in the Italian Garden, a remarkable sequence of pictures by Michael Frankling. A Grey Heron saw a carp in the pool and plunged right in to try to grab it. It missed.

The Coot nest on the wire basket by the bridge is hatching out. So far only two chicks are visible, but there were six eggs.

Ten new Greylag goslings relaxed on the edge of the Serpentine while their father kept watch for approaching dogs.

You wouldn't think a Mute Swan could dive, but this one managed by getting up quite a speed before it put its head down. It travelled about 30 yards under water before it came up.

The five cygnets at the island are still in good shape ...

... but there was a lot of chasing in the middle of the lake.

Allium flowers are popular with insects. One in the Rose Garden was browsed on by a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, Honeybees and a small black ant.

2 comments:

  1. I'm amazed by that swan's ability to dive. They seem capable of almost anything, despite their size.

    The Long Tailed Tits look like adorable lolipops. Props to the nimble Blue Tit though, an ace at callisthenics.

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    1. One thing Mute Swans are terribly bad at is walking. It is painful to watch. Sometimes when a swan has been driven ashore by a rival and has wandered off I have to herd it back to a place where it can get back to the water, and it is a sad process though necessary.

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