Saturday 20 November 2021

There is still no sign of the arrival of winter migrant thrushes in the park. They have been generally late this year but there are now some in outer London, including plenty of Redwings. This Mistle Thrush near the Round Pond is one of the few year-round residents.


A Pied Wagtail paused for a moment on the edge of the Serpentine.


Two good pictures by Neil: a female Chaffinch in the Flower Walk which is becoming quite tame ...


... and a Blue Tit near the Albert Memorial.


A Magpie stared out of autumn leaves beside the Long Water ...


... and there was a serious glare from a Jay that wanted to be fed and not photographed.



Wood Pigeons are hoovering up the holly berries as fast as they can.


A Grey Heron managed to look slightly festive in front of the remaining fruit.


The Polish Black-Headed Gull T8YT, a regular winter visitor for several years, was near the Triangle car park.


A young Cormorant, still with a juvenile whitish front, dried its wings on a post at Peter Pan.


A Gadwall drake pottered along the Serpentine shore.


Most of the Shovellers seem to have left the Long Water, but there are still a few. A drake in his full finery ...


... and an immature drake who will have to wait till next year before he looks really smart.


A Grey Squirrel explored a heap of wood cuttings where the area next to the leaf yard is being cleared. It found some small edible thing, but I couldn't see what it was.


Despite the onset of cold weather there are still quite a few insects around. There different flies settled on a leaf. The shiny one on the right is a Greenbottle, looking bronze in the autumn light.

4 comments:

  1. Is it possible to know when our Polish friend arrives, usually? It'd be interesting to see if this year it arrived on time while the rest of winter migrant birds haven't.

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    1. Black-Headed Gulls start arriving in the park early in late summer, as soon as they have finished breeding and the young can fly, at which point their parents stop looking after them. Then the gulls trickle in during the autumn and there are now over 700 in the park. The Polish gulls arrived in the last week of September.

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  2. Now doing the rounds a video of tenacious pigeons in the park. Is that at the leaf yard? Jim

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    Replies
    1. Ridiculous bird. It was enjoying itself. Yes, that's the bottom of the leaf yard and they are on the path leading to Peter Pan.

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