Tuesday 20 July 2021

On a hot day, a Feral Pigeon cooled off with a shower in the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden.

A Jay at the foot of Buck Hill was pestered by a young one.

A Wren looked out from the bushes.

Long-Tailed Tits passed through the trees near the Albert Memorial.

One of the local pair of Coal Tits looked down from a branch.

A Grey Heron stood on the Diana landing stage in the odd pose with wings akimbo that herons adopt when basking in sunshine. Perhaps this brings parasites to the surface of its feathers where the heron can pick them off.

A heron was using the now abandoned Coots' nest at the bridge as a fishing platform.

The Great Crested Grebes that nested on the fallen poplar in the Long Water are nesting again. Their one chick from the previous nest will still be fed while they are sitting, but it's going to have to become independent sooner than usual.

It was busy catching flies in front of the nest.

At the island, an adult Coot caught a crayfish. A young Coot grabbed it, dodged its parent, and swallowed it.

The Mute Swans' nest at the boathouse is also abandoned, and a sunflower is growing in the middle, evidently from a seed that someone was trying to feed to the swans.

A close-up of the young Common Carp in the Italian Garden fountain, tiny replicas of their parents.

A Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly perched on a twig where some trapped insects dangled from a spider's web. It probably didn't see them, and made no effort to eat them.

A Common Blue damselfly perched on a grass stem, ignoring gravity. Thanks to Neil for this picture.

A yellow hypericum flower was visited by a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.

2 comments:

  1. That's a resourceful, and dexterous, young Coot.

    Worried about the Grebe chick. Flies can keep it going till it perfects its fishing skills, right?

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    Replies
    1. No, flies wouldn't be enough. However, the adults haven't yet laid eggs, and it will be fed all the time they are incubating, 28 days.

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