Friday 25 June 2021

The Great Tit family in the Flower Walk were dashing around, with the fledglings making a lot of noise.

There is a feeder in the bushes, where the parents were working hard to keep them satisfied.

A Long-Tailed Tit perched on a twig of a Winged Elm, so called because of the protrusions on its bark.

A Goldcrest searched for insects in a holly tree near the bridge.

A Reed Warbler family near the Diana fountain (I think there are two here) had taken to the bushes on the end of the fountain enclosure. They were very hard to see, let alone photograph, and this shot of two of the three fledglings is the best I could get.

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull finished the remains of a pigeon at the Triangle car park. It's where the new pigeon-killing Herring Gull hunts, and this was probably one of its victims.


The Great Crested Grebes looked firmly established in their nest at the Diana fountain landing stage ...

... but the Grey Heron was still staring balefully at them. Will they be able to keep it away? I've seen grebes attacking herons in the water by speeding in underwater and biting their ankles.

The Coot in the Mute Swans' nest at the boathouse was still sitting undisturbed on three eggs.

In fact this video is out of date, because when I went by later the swan egg had gone. There was no sign of its having been broken, and I think a human took it. No harm done in this case, but egg collectors are a threat to birds in general.

The swans were at the edge of the lake with their single cygnet, displaying beautifully ...

... but the scene was quickly broken up because the male saw a pair of swans mating on his territory ...

... and charged over to separate them.

The swans' nest on the Long Water was occupied by a Grey Heron and a pair of Egyptian Geese. The swans are still resting on it occasionally.

Blondie preened on the edge of the Serpentine.

The single Mallard duckling near the bridge is getting adult plumage.

A Mallard at Peter Pan has two small ducklings.

A Red Admiral butterfly rested on a nettle gently stirred by the breeze.

A Common Carder bumblebee worked over some red clover flowers behind the Lido.

2 comments:

  1. What a dramatic picture of the young Great Tit! It captures perfectly the imperious mood of the little birds, so small, and yet so demanding.

    It's a shame that the swan cob should break up his lovely display with his wife and kid just to thwart the happiness of two others. I am sure there must be a lesson in there.

    The mental image of Grebes biting a Heron's ankles underwater is priceless!

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    1. It's a risky business attacking a heron with a deadly spear of a beak and lightning reflexes. But a grebe can swim under water as fast as a man can run, so it can streak in unobserved, give one nasty nip, and streak off again before the heron has realised what has happened. I don't think I shall ever get a video of this.

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