I was called to the bridge to see a pair of what were reported as Wood Warblers, which would be quite a find in the park. Warblers are difficult, and I'm not sure they were. Their pale legs seem to rule out Chiffchaffs, but the brightness of their yellow underparts is surprising. Here are two pictures. What do you think? Update: Likely to be a young Willow Warbler -- juveniles are yellower than adults.
It didn't help that there were other kinds of warblers looking for insects in the deserted Magpie nest in the tree. There were a Chiffchaff ...
... a Reed Warbler photographed by Ahmet Amerikali ...
... and a Goldcrest.
A Grey Heron looked down on the confusion from the top of the next tree.
The female Little Owl was in the chestnut tree 50 yards east of the nest tree which the pair seem to favour at the moment.
A Carrion Crow feasted on the fruit in a rowan at the top of Buck Hill.
There is a broken land drain on one side of the Vista. Repairs to the bottom end seem to have made the upper parts worse, and there is now a marsh in front of the Queen's Temple. Carrion Crows take advantage of it to look for insects.
A Robin sang loudly in the Rose Garden, competing with the noise of the rollerbladers' boom boxes on the road behind.
A Starling stared at the camera from the railings at the Lido restaurant.
A young Herring Gull and a Black-Headed Gull devoured what at first seemed to be chips, but in fact they were some kind of snack food extruded in a hollow square section in various colours.
There were a lot of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls on the Long Water, most of them young. When they flew you could see the all-dark wings that identified them.
The Moorhens in the Italian Garden still have three chicks. These scenes show all three and both parents.
The sunshine made rainbows in the fountains.
A Common Drone fly, Eristalis tenax, worked over the flowers of a Verbena bonariensis in the Rose Garden.
Look like a juvenile willow warbler, they are nice and yellow in there first plumage.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I was wondering about Willow Warbler, but the yellow seemed too bright.
DeleteWarblers are so confusing to me. I love them all equally and fairly, but dang, aren't they a bother to ID.
ReplyDeleteI love the singing Robin so much. Brave little heart.
The rollerskaters behind the Robin are noisy, not to mention breaking park regulations, but it's a traditional Sunday gathering and some of them dance very well and have been featured on past editions of the blog.
DeleteThe juvenile Willow Warblers look very smart with their bright yellowish plumage tones. Good to see them passing through.
ReplyDeleteI believe your hoverfly is the sibling species Eristalis tenax due to the all dark, swollen hind tibia.
I'm sure you're right about the hoverfly, though side views of the same insect seemed to show the abdomen tapering in steps as in E. pertinax. But these two species seem to be very varied -- almost as hard as warblers.
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