The Long-Tailed Tits in the Rose Garden were busy bringing spider webs to the nest they are building. It's not in the Eunonymus bush where they built last year, but in a nearby Pittosporum.
The scene was enlivened by a Robin ...
... and a Wren both singing in the next bush.
A Rose-Ringed Parakeet ate blossom in a nearby cherry tree.
All fell silent when a Sparrowhawk passed high overhead.
A Coal Tit lurked in a bay tree at the back of the Serpentine Gallery.
A Mistle Thrush hopped around on Buck Hill looking for worms.
Another was at the bottom of the lawn around the Henry Moore statue.
A Pied Wagtail and a Redwing crossed paths on the Parade Ground, both hunting on the bare soil.
There were several of each. One of the wagtails found a small worm.
A Grey Wagtail ran along the edge of the Serpentine.
I never thought I'd take a picture of the Park Lane Hilton hotel, a very ugly building that was the first to spoil the view in the park. But its top is now infested with mobile phone aerials, and these have become a popular gathering place for Carrion Crows.
The Grey Heron chick on the island is now standing up in the nest, and I got my first sight of it. They have to be quite big before you can see them over the edge of the deep nest.
The other nests were busy too, but it's hard to tell whether any others actually have eggs in them.
A pair of Great Crested Grebes on the Long Water did the 'cat dance', and this is the first time I've been able to get a video of it. First they display, then one of them rushes away a short distance and half spreads its wings in a posture that makes it look a bit like a sitting cat. Possibly this symbolises to its mate that it will be carrying a lot of chicks on its back, but who knows what goes through a grebe's head?
Oh my God, what a lovely dance! We are so lucky you were able to capture it in film. Certainly it looks as if the cat-impersonating Grebe is showing how wide and capacious its back is.
ReplyDeleteI wish there was a Grebe / Human dictionary. I would trade all my books for it!
Well done on the Crows. Always ready to make hte most of anything.
Grebes have a perceptible vocabulary. I can distinguish seven calls (including two of juveniles) and five gestures, but there are probably more I haven't picked up.
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