Saturday 3 July 2021

A top view of the Great Crested Grebe chick from the nest in the willow tree next to the bridge.

This is the older chick from the north end of the Long Water.

Two Mute Swans at the island defied each other across a net which prevented them from actually attacking each other, so they could peck as much as they like without the danger of an actual fight that they might lose. I thought the swan inside the net was trapped, but the people at Bluebird Boats kindly checked and found that it could get out, which it did later.

Virginia sent a lovely picture of a cygnet flapping its little wings.

The abundant algae on the lake provided food for a Mallard with two ducklings ...

... and a Red-Crested Pochard ...

... and a Moorhen picked them off the small waterfall in the Dell.

The first returning Black-Headed Gull was on a post at Peter Pan.

Gulls can't grip objects with their feet, so this Herring Gull had to peck furiously at its crayfish to get the meat out of it. A Carrion Crow would hold the crayfish down and eat it in a much more leisurely way.

There was a brief glimpse of a Song Thrush ...

... and a Wren in the Flower Walk.

Another Wren in a lime tree near the leaf yard scolded some crows strutting about on the ground below.

The young Great Tits are now feeding themselves. They search for insects in a dead tree next to the bridge.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was walking across a busy path. It seemed exhausted. I picked it up and put it on a flower in the hope that a drink of nectar would revive it.

Bees are particular about the roses they visit. The open flower of a Sweet Briar is easy for a Honeybee to manage ...

... but this Buff-Tailed Bumblebee can only just get its head into a French Rose.

2 comments:

  1. That was a very kindly action that surely saved the poor exhausted creature from certain death.

    I'm melting with the Grebe chick video. It swims so well! And it uses its legs like little turbines, just like its parent.

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    1. It's hard to know when you find these exhausted bees whether they are at the end of their life or whether they are just stranded by accident and have run out of fuel and body heat. Anyway, transferring them to a flower does no harm and might do some good.

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