Sunday 7 November 2021

The holly tree at the bridge was full of Wood Pigeons eating the fruit.


A Great Tit looked out from behind a clump of berries.


Long-Tailed Tits flew through the bushes behind Peter Pan.


A Pied Wagtail hunted on the roof of one of the small boathouses.


Starlings waited in a hawthorn tree at the Dell restaurant for diners to leave a table so they could grab the scraps.


A Carrion Crow shone in the sunlight.


A Common Gull flew off with a large brown bread crust to eat it in a secluded spot. Not having prehensile feet makes it hard for them to deal with long pieces of food.


A Great Crested Grebe had a couple of flaps, liked the feel of the brisk headwind, and went for a little flight.


They have already moulted and replaced their flight feathers, and if the lake freezes they are ready to leave and go up the Thames. I don't think the youngest ones on the Long Water are airworthy yet, but they will be by Christmas.

The Teal drake was still on the Long Water, and still by the gravel bank at the Vista.


Most of the Shovellers seem to have moved on, but there are still a few on the Long Water. This drake has been under a bush next to Peter Pan for the past few days.


A Grey Squirrel ate a conker on the big wooden centipede in the North Flower Walk.


This is the only man of military age NOT breaking the law. Since the Middle Ages all men up to the age of 40 have been required to practise archery on Sunday afternoons, and as far as I know that law is still in force.


A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsing in the plumbago in the Rose Garden disturbed a Mottled Shieldbug, Rhaphigaster nebulosa. (For the sake of completeness, the bee is Bombus terrestris.)


A very late Buttercup has come up in the grass in Kensington Gardens.

2 comments:

  1. The carriage of that man is praiseworthy. Perhaps he is military and not only of military age?

    I've never seen a Grebe fly in real life. Like everything else they do, they max out the adorable-meter!

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    1. The grassy rectangle just outside the northwest corner of the park, between Kensington Palace and the Bayswater Road, is called the Archery Field and is regularly used for exactly that. There is a small but skilled club of archers. I think that having to draw a heavy bow requires not only muscular strength but good stance. There are no slobs among these people.


      Great Crested Grebes have small wings and a very high stall speed. Think F-104G and you get the idea.

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