Friday 6 August 2021

The Sparrowhawks were flying around the greenhouses again, hard to see between the trees but I got a snatched shot in poor light.


The weather brightened up in the afternoon and there was a better view of the female Kestrel hunting over the Meadow.


A male Kestrel was reported here on the London Bird Club Wiki, but I haven't seen him myself.

The female Little Owl was in her nest tree as usual, contemplating a man doing press-ups on the ground below.


A Carrion Crow won a crisp from somewhere.


But they don't like crisp things, so the bird dunked it in a puddle.


Neil has found a Green Woodpeckers' nest in an isolated ash tree next to the West Carriage Drive, due west of the greenhouses. I haven't seen a Green Woodpecker for a while, and they are having a hard time as Rose-Ringed Parakeets stealing their holes.


It was a windy day and a Great Crested Grebe bounced up and down in the waves at the east end of the Serpentine. Luckily they don't get seasick.


The Moorhen nesting under the weir went by carrying a reed.


Another Moorhen is making a new nest in the Italian Garden.


The Coots nesting here seemed to have lost their last chick when I didn't see it for several days, but surprisingly it's turned out to be alive and well.


A Mute Swan enjoyed a mighty flap.


There has been a sudden appearance of Common Blue butterflies, and here are three on the Meadow and at the back of the Lido.


A patch of Agapanthus in the Dell attracted a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee ...


... and a hoverfly. This is Myathropa florea, which has the silly common name of Dead Head Hoverfly from the very faint resemblance of the markings on its thorax to a skull.

4 comments:

  1. I've been squinting at the hoverfly and nope, not seeing any skull. Folk names are too imaginative for my prosaic and literal mind at times.

    The Little Owl looks so regal, looking down on human fruitless restlessness.

    Great news about the Coot chick. I find it cheering that sometimes they pop up back again when all seems lost.

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    1. It looks more like a Hallowe'en pumpkin if anything.

      The man was quite unsettled when I showed him the Little Owl looking at him disapprovingly, and went off to finish torturing himself somewhere else.

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  2. I've not heard that common name for Myathropa but does seem to be frequently called the "Batman Hoverfly" & on many specimens it just about works.

    Good to see plenty of bird of prey action again.

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    1. Yes, I thought it looked rather like the Batman logo. I do try to give common names where possible, since taxonomic names send many people into a tizzy.

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