Saturday 12 June 2021

A Wren scolded a predator, probably a Magpie, in a tree beside the Long Water.


Another Wren was scolding another Magpie in the Rose Garden.


A young Blackcap beside the Long Water called loudly to be fed. Its parents were away looking for insects for it.


A pleasing picture by Neil of the familiar Blue Tit that follows us along the path beside the Long Water, asking for pine nuts.


A Great Crested Grebe fished in the thick algae at the north end of the Long Water. It brought something up, but it was only a stick.


The Moorhen chicks are finding it quite hard to move through the dense mat.


A pair of Moorhens affectionately ate each other's parasites on a branch.


The three Coot chicks at Peter Pan were in high spirits, washing ...


... jumping on to the nest ...


... and being fed by their parents.


Two more pictures by Neil. There is a new family of Egyptian Geese on the Long Water, and they have taken up residence on the Mute Swans' nesting island ...


... where strangely the swans tolerate them.


The Greylag Geese families with goslings on the south side of the Serpentine are very protective of their brood and shoo away other Greylags, in contrast to the cooperative Canadas who look after each other's families.


But there is only one Canada gosling this year, now a teenager and beginning to grow its primary feathers.


The four young Mallards are now as large as their mother and it's quite hard to tell them apart. She is at front left in this picture.


A crowd of Buff-Tailed Bumblebees browsed on the little purple flowers of Lamb's Ears in the Rose Garden.


A hoverfly landed on a bramble flower. I think it's a Lesser Banded Hoverfly, Syrphus vitripennis, but it might be S. ribesii as you can't be sure of the colour of its legs in the shadow.

4 comments:

  1. Great shots, Ralph! Lovely meeting you today by the Hyde Park ponds :)

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  2. Wrens do punch above their weight. I hope the offending magpie felt suitably harassed.

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    Replies
    1. I wonder whether warning calls have any effect on predators. These have after all grown up in an environment of warning calls. I suspect that only direct attack or mobbing works.

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