A Blue Tit near the Lido hung from a blossoming twig.
The Long-Tailed Tit pair bustled around their nest by the bridge.
Behind the Albert Memorial there were a Coal Tit ...
... a male Chaffinch ...
... and his mate.
The Redwings on the Parade Ground were all in the trees.
Feral Pigeons bathed in the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden.
A pair were trying to mate when two more barged in.
A Grey Heron on the island ignored its clamouring young and flew away. They get fed well and often.
The Herring Gull pair on the south side of the Serpentine moaned to each other in the shade of a tree.
The Great Crested Grebes have settled down comfortably on the stolen Coots' nest under the willow by the bridge.
The nest opposite Peter Pan, also stolen from Coots, has been going for some time and should be hatching soon.
But I am worried about whether there will be enough food for the young. Grebes normally nest much later on this lake, waiting until this season's fish fry have grown to a large enough size.
The water is still providing food for a few Cormorants, but they are concerned with larger fish.
A Mute Swan was making a nest in the reed bed next to the Lido. It's a very exposed place next to the path and unprotected from fox attack, but surprisingly the pair succeeded in raising young here last year.
A Brimstone butterfly settled on a purple polyanthus in the Flower Walk. Usually they are the first species to appear in the park, but this year they have been beaten by a Red Admiral and a Small Tortoiseshell.
A raft has appeared on the Long Water. I asked the workmen about it, and they told me that they are going to put a digger on it. The plan is to enlarge the reed bed near the bridge and repair the gravel bank and the swans' nesting island, both of which are subsiding.
I love how the swan is inspecting and supervising the works.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely, vivid picture of the Blue Tit!
Now I am worried about the Grebes as well. But let us trust they know what they are doing.
That's the dominant male swan and he really is inspecting this intrusion on his territory. He won't be pleased at all when work is started on his island. At least the pair show no sign of wanting to start a nest yet. I hope they don't get driven to choose a dangerous site ashore. He already lost his first mate to a fox.
ReplyDeleteLovely as grebes are, I don't think they're very good at forward planning.
A much better day yesterday than the forecast suggested which was for mainly cloud. Like you had my first male Brimstone with one fluttering past me in our local park. Later had a glimpse of a Small Tortoiseshell in the front garden where several male & a single female Hairy-footed Flower Bees were active along with my first garden record of a recent colonist-European Orchard Bee.
ReplyDeleteHad a Small Tortoiseshell on 27 February -- video on blog -- but no sign so far of a Hairy-Footed Flower Bee, which is quite common in the park but they haven't got going yet.
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