Monday 1 November 2021

Today the pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was eating a Carrion Crow. I don't know how it had died, but I suspect natural causes.


He seemed not to like the taste and went off to hunt pigeons, followed by a crow.


Soon he was surrounded by vengeful crows.


There was no actual attack, but the incident left the gull in a foul mood and he started chasing off all the other gulls.


I don't think this young Herring Gull is becoming a vegetarian, despite the speeches of the posturing hypocrites at COP26.


A shower left a rainbow, crossed by a Black-Headed Gull.


A crow looked for insects and worms in a drift of dead leaves.


The male Peregrine on the crane in Knightsbridge surveyed the scene from his 300ft high vantage point.


A Long-Tailed Tit perched in the red oak at the Vista.


Two Grey Herons ran down Buck Hill towards a chance of being fed.


A Great Crested Grebe was fishing under the moored rowing boats.


On the Long Water, one of the chicks got fed despite a Black-Headed Gull hanging around to try to snatch the fish.


The air traffic control on the Serpentine is not good. The Black Swan had a near miss with a descending Mute Swan, and a Herring Gull and a Black-Headed Gull were involved in the incident.


The visiting Wigeon travelled along the edge of the Serpentine until she was repelled by an aggressive Coot.


Two fine pictures from today by Virginia: a close-up of the beautiful markings of  a Gadwall drake ...


... and the female Teal preening. She has been here for some time, but often goes unobserved in the bushes along the edge of the Long Water.


A pretty video by Tom of the Dartford Warbler in a wild rose bush at Rainham Marshes.

4 comments:

  1. Lovely videos all today. Hard to pick one's favourite!

    Corvids stage funerals and will mob anyone who grabs a dead corvid. It happened to us with magpies. We picked up a dead magpie for burial and soon enough there was an angry circle of magpies scolding and following us.

    I say we'd fare far better under the guidance of a board of gulls and coots than we do with the current G20 roster.

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    1. Gulls might be all right but I wouldn't want to be governed by Coots. They'd start wars almost as easily as humans.

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  2. Interesting shots of the gulls. I guess it must be a trick of the light as the top photo makes the back look so much lighter than the other shots where it looks so much more typical.

    Must have been quite amusing to watch those Herons running for food.

    The Rainham Dartford Warbler seems pretty showy at times as I've seen so many shots of it on FB. I managed to find one in Richmond Park yesterday- a regular autumn/winter visitor there these days, though my highlight was seeing my first Ravens there. They have been seen quite a few times the last couple of years but I'd never connected with them, but had the thrill of 5 noisy birds flying low over me. Later saw 2 in a different area that may have been from these but also possibly different birds.

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    1. It's surprising how much the look of a Lesser Black-Backed Gull's back changes with the direction of the light falling on it. the pigeon eater is a typical British mid-grey bird.

      Very envious of you seeing those Ravens at Richmond. I've never seen one in Britain at all.

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