Thursday 25 November 2021

A beautiful sunny cold day, but not much was going on. As usual, Long-Tailed Tits were on their endless search for insects ...


... and so was a Goldcrest in the Rose Garden. These tiny birds can only just avoid starvation through the winter, but a run of mild winters with little frost has allowed their numbers to increase.


A Wood Pigeon struggled for balance while eating holly berries.


After yesterday's murky image of a Jay in the afternoon gloom, a good bright picture from Neil.


Another of Neil's pictures. Rose-Ringed Parakeets may be a serious pest, but they are very fine looking creatures.


Yes, we've had a lot of videos of Pied Wagtails recently and probably you're getting bored with them. But they are such pretty little birds and look so good against a background of autumn leaves that I can't resist filming them.


The odd couple of a Lesser Black-Backed Gull and a Herring Gull strutted around together, moaned affectionately at each other, and toyed with a twig at the Lido. Very closely related species, they can have fertile offspring, and possibly some of what seem to be very light-coloured Lesser Black-Backs are actually hybrids.


A Lesser Black-Back stared down from an urn in the Italian Garden.


The Black-Headed Gull with the plastic ring 28P1 did its best to conceal its identity ...


... but the ring could be read through the water.


When a Grey Heron is stands patiently in one place for a long time, it usually has something in mind. This one at the Henry Moore sculpture is waiting for a rat to look out from the hedge ...


... and this one on the small willow at the Triangle car park is waiting for a human to turn up and start chucking bits of bread about -- which happens a lot there as people are too idle to walk any distance along the shore.


A Cormorant shone in the sunlight at Peter Pan.


The two youngest Great Crested Grebe teenagers, hatched in late summer on the Long Water, fish together. This increases their chance of a catch, since a fish frightened by one may flee towards the other. They are still not catching much, but seem to be in perfectly good shape and I think they have turned the corner to survival.


An adult in the evening light.


The dominant male Mute Swan at the east end of the Serpentine was amusing himself by beating up the other swans.


A pair of Gadwalls browsed peacefully at the Lido.

2 comments:

  1. I’ll never get bored of Pied Wagtails

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nor will I. Or, for that matter, Grey and Yellow.

      Delete