It was a warm afternoon, and a Carrion Crow ...
... and some Starlings cooled off with a bathe in the Serpentine.
A Wren had a thorough preen on a twig beside the Long Water. It was still going five minutes after I stopped filming.
A flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked their way up from the Albert Memorial to the Physical Energy statue.
A Pied Wagtail called as it hunted in the grass.
The male Peregrine tends to perch on the tower with his back to the view, and you have to wait for him to look round.
Male pigeons never stop trying it on with females.
An Rose-Ringed Parakeets never stop trying to get into feeders, despite finding them impossible to penetrate.
The Little Owls weren't being helpful today. The male at the Serpentine Gallery was dozing and wouldn't look down ...
... and the pair near the Speke obelisk, although they called to each other occasionally, remained completely invisible in two trees. However, when I was dodging around under a tree trying to see something there was a little tapping noise overhead, and there was a female Great Spotted Woodpecker looking for insects on a small branch.
A young Herring Gull dived to find a toy, chose a leaf, and took it to the edge of the lake to play with.
A young Grey Heron has often been seen on the gravel strip on the Long Water. Today there were three of them. Perhaps this place offers easy fishing for beginners.
The Great Crested Grebe chicks are quietening down at last, and just following their parents and learning from them. This is one of the youngest chicks at the Vista ...
... and an older one at the island.
A fox came out on the grass at the Vista and took no notice at all of the people staring at it and photographing it. Urban foxes are becoming more and more blasé about humans.
Lots of ablutions today! Always enjoy watching the gulls playing with various items.
ReplyDeleteI did make it to Rainham yesterday & like you scored a hat trick of egrets with 2 Cattle Egrets close to the centre, 2 Great from the viewing platform & plenty of Little Egrets. Missed the Spoonbill that had been seen earlier, but nobody else I met had seen it either. A glorious day to have been & I bumped into Tom just before I left, just as a Curlew had landed in front of the hide he was in. Amazed at the numbers of Red Admirals on the ivy there -counted 24 but were probably more.
Glad you had a good day at Rainham. The place seems to be turning into Egret Central, with white dots across the landscape as far as the eye can see. Must keep an eye on the ivy here and a few clumps of Fatsia as they attract autumn insects -- though I have still never seen an Ivy Bee.
DeleteI'll be surprised if there aren't any Ivy Bees in the park somewhere? There were lots at Rainham & also encountered many locally at Northolt & nesting in a sand pit at Warren Farm. They have been pretty effective colonisers like quite a few other insects in recent years.
ReplyDeleteThere's a mass of ivy at the back of the Lido. I'll keep looking.
DeleteThat poor fox looks mangey !
ReplyDeleteAll urban foxes seem to get the mange eventually. An infectious condition and a dense population make it inevitable.
DeleteThe Herring Gull playing is absolutely spellbinding. Never a dull moment with them.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the Grebe chicks are trailing their parents because they want to, right? I mean, they could swim as fast as they if they wished, could they?
The grebe chicks are at the stage when they dive with their parents, motivated by both hunger and playfulness, and thus learn the technique of fishing. But it's still a rude shock when their parents stop feeding them and they find they have to fish in earnest, and they have to work very hard for not much result.
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