Saturday 25 September 2021

An uneventful day was graced by a sight of the female Little Owl in her nest tree near the Speke obelisk.

There were some Robins to brighten the scene: one in the Rose Garden, and another singing on the edge of the Long Water.

A Song Thrush uttered a few brief phrases. They occasionally sing out of season, even in midwinter.

A Grey Wagtail and a Dunnock hunted for insects along the edge of the Serpentine.

A Starling at the Lido restaurant wondered whether I had any food for it. But if you start feeding Starlings you will be mobbed by them for ever afterwards.

A male Feral Pigeon enjoyed a light snack of his mate's fleas and lice.

A Peregrine flew on and off the crane in Knightsbridge several times.

It was the turn of a Grey Heron to occupy the dead tree near the bridge.

Even adult Herring Gulls play with things sometimes, though it's hard to see what this one liked about a beakful of miscellaneous debris.

A Cormorant caught a perch, and had to separate it from a bunch of algae and turn it round to swallow it head first. Less spiny fish go down so fast that you can seldom get a picture.


Two elegant female ducks: a Mandarin on the Serpentine ...

... and a Red-Crested Pochard -- these look as if they'd been playing with their mother's lipstick.

The many small florets of a Sedum kept a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee busy.

There is seldom much to see in the North Flower Walk, which doesn't have nearly as many flowers as the South one near the Albert Memorial. But the Victorian benches are curious, every one of them different. Here is one whose ironwork is in the shape of branches ...

... and another supported on two snakes with barbed tails.

6 comments:

  1. Where is the North Flower Walk?

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    1. Parallel to the Bayswater Road, from the gate by Italian Garden westward to the next gate.

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    2. Thanks Ralph! As well as I know the park you never fail to highlight something I've passed and never noticed.

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  2. Doesn't the Red-Crested Pochard seeming botched attempt at using lipstick bring back memories... the bird is way neater than some I could mention, though.

    Robins and Owls on the daily. The necessities of a good life.

    I would find it impossible to resist the appealing stare of the Starling, even if it meant they were going to plague me to exhaustion afterwards!

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    1. Being mobbed by Starlings for food is actually quite alarming. They mean no harm, but they hurl themselves at you in a mass of sharp beaks.

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