The Hobbies were flying around the greenhouses.
This is one of the young ones, which is having a hard time. It has been picked up several times exhausted and hungry, taken into care and fed, and released only for the same thing to happen again.
The carers ask anyone who knows where the Hobbies nested to tell them. If you know, please don't put your answer in the comments -- Hobbies are Schedule 1 birds and you aren't allowed to disclose their nest site. Instead, write to me privately here, and I will pass on the information.
The male Little Owl was in the nest tree.
The young Grey Wagtail was on a rock at the bottom of the Dell waterfall.
The fruit on the rowan trees on Buck Hill attracted a young Blackbird. I couldn't get a good shot of it in the tree -- Blackbirds tend to stay in the leaves, unlike the more easily photographed Mistle Thrushes -- but here it is on the ground.
A female Blackcap ate elderberries in a tree near the bridge.
There were two young Blue Tits on the dead tree here going in and out of a hole, evidently a nest hole. Earlier, Great Tits nested in a hole on the other side of the tree.
A Robin came out of the leaf yard to pick up spilt seeds under the feeder.
A Black-Headed Gull longed for a moment's peace so that it could swallow a crayfish it had caught. Finally it succeeded.
A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull played with a conker, tasted it, found it too bitter, and left.
A young Herring Gull vigorously rinsed its feathers and flew away.
Another was playing with a long stick, too big to lift but it could be pulled about.
It looks as if the Great Crested Grebes' nest opposite Peter Pan is hatching. The grebe is sitting with raised wings, as if there were chicks underneath.
One of the two chicks on the Serpentine raced to collect a fish from its father.
The second sunflower at the boathouse has come out.
Some more interesting insect pictures from Duncan Campbell. A Common Wasp drank from raindrops on a leaf. He says it drank a surprising amount.
Two Plain-Faced Drone Flies (Eristalis arbustorum) mating.
A Greenbottle fly landed dangerously close to a small spider, maybe a Crab Spider. Nothing happened, and the fly flew off.
That's the mother, right? She does have a look of satisfaction in her face, so I bet she has her babies with her already.
ReplyDeleteIt's a hard life, being a Gull. I mean, being a Gull must of itself be wonderful. The problem is that there are other Gulls too. I am reminded of a famous witticism by a sadly departed classicist who once said that, when the devil saw how good a life professors had, he created the colleague.
Judging by the width of the crest, I think that's the father. But it makes no difference to their behaviour. Both sexes share all the tasks of incubating the eggs and raining the young, regularly exchanging roles. I think that Grebes probably don't know what sex they are until one of them is surprised by laying eggs, which instantly become the property of both of them.
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