Saturday 26 June 2021

Many of the small birds have stopped singing now, but a Blackcap in the Flower Walk was still in good voice.

The Great Tit fledglings were chasing their parents through the bushes.


Tom took this picture of a young Long-Tailed Tit ...


... and this shot of a rather worn adult Reed Warbler is by Ahmet Amerikali.


The usual Jay waited for a peanut beside the Long Water.


A video from Nick Abalov, showing a young Rose-Ringed Parakeet in a hole in a plane tree shouting loudly for attention and getting fed by its parents.


House Martins nest on the Kuwaiti Embassy, a Victorian building whose ornate plasterwork gives them a good place for building a nest. It's odd to see them flying around the top of the Household Cavalry barracks tower, which looks a most unsuitable place for them, not least because there's often a Peregrine on it as there was earlier this morning. Maybe the insects are flying high.


Here is the Peregrine. The pair's ledge is lower down the tower.


The Great Crested Grebe chick could be seen under the willow.


A Coot passed a small edible object to its mate on the nest in the middle of the Long Water, a sign that more chicks have hatched though I couldn't see them.



The Coot nesting under the deck of the Bluebird Boats platform pecked my foot while Mateusz offered it a feather to add to its nest.


Mateusz found some Coot eggs in a rowing boat, and gave them to the Moorhen nesting in the box on the platform to bring up. We don't know whether the experiment will succeed, but that is how Coots were introduced to central London in the early 1920s. Eggs were put in Moorhens' nests in St James's Park.


The Moorhen was angry at being disturbed for the photograph, but soon went back to the nest.


A Cormorant caught a large carp in a pool in the Italian Gardens. It was too big to eat and the bird had to let it go.


Large carp swam around at the east end of the Serpentine. I'm told that the record for a carp caught in the lake is 44lb (20kg).


Common Blue Damselflies ...


... and Red-Eyed Damselflies were mating.

2 comments:

  1. Coots can't help it. They haven't met anything they didn't want to fight, even if it is the boot of someone a gazillion times their size.

    The face of adoration on the proud Grebe parent is wonderful. It oozes happiness.

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    Replies
    1. I am sure that grebes experience true love.

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