Tuesday 25 January 2022

It was a chilly day and so dark that the lamps in Hyde Park switched themselves on. Although they are gas lamps they have a photoelectric cell to switch them on automatically.


The weather didn't deter the Song Thrush at the leaf yard from singing in the top of a lime tree.



A Wood Pigeon was also singing beside the Long Water, but stopped before I could get a video.


One of the Robins in the Rose Garden explored a flower bed ...


... and a small party of Long-Tailed Tits flew through the treetops.


A Carrion Crow perched on a big flower pot at the Lido restaurant.


The Grey Heron on the third nest was adding twigs to an already huge structure. Two parents and three fully grown chicks can weigh as much as 15lb, so it needs to be quite strong.


The huge area of compacted mud left by the funfair has to be ploughed and harrowed before new turf can be laid on it. This attracts hordes of gulls, mostly Black-Headed, to look for worms in the newly turned earth.


The Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage was keeping his territory clear.


A Lesser Black-Backed Gull was annoying another at Peter Pan by swimming round and round the post it was standing on.


A young Herring Gull was playing with an AA battery, interested in its shiny gold top. Luckily modern batteries are proof against being pecked and don't exude vile poisonous gunge like the old zinc-carbon cells.


A Great Crested Grebe was doing nothing as usual, but made a pretty reflection.


A pair of Shovellers were feeding at the Serpentine outflow. For a change, here's the discreetly patterned female.


The dominant male Mute Swan on the Long Water has tolerated the orphaned teenager trying to join his family, but today lost patience with it and shooed it away.

2 comments:

  1. I wonder why the male swan's tolerance levels change so much from day to day. I feel for the lonely orphan though.

    The scene of the Gull going round the other gull's post must have been hilarious!

    When I was young there was a widespread trick to make batteries last longer: when the batteries were failing, you'd just bite them till you dented them. It certainly worked (I don't know why), but it's a miracle that so many peope of my generation is still alive!

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    Replies
    1. The male swan is a very moody creature and often gets more aggressive than his normal furious self.

      I should have video'd those Lesser Black-Backs.

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