Monday 25 April 2022

Peter Pan painted purple

Two Goldfinches twittered in a treetop near the Albert Memorial.


The Long-Tailed Tit nest at the east end of the Lido must have hatched. A parent was bringing insects.


It flitted around from tree to tree aware that a Carrion Crow was watching, and not wanting to reveal the location of the nest.


A Grey Wagtail perched at the top of the Dell waterfall holding a cranefly. But hopes that it might be feeding young in a nest were dashed when it ate the insect.


On the shore of the Lido, a curious look from a Pied Wagtail.


A Magpie had been washing at the Lido restaurant, and went into one of the pleached limes to shake itself dry.


These limes were meant to make a neat square hedge around the restaurant terrace, a scheme planned by a soulless architect and for which some beautiful olive and pomegranate trees were grubbed up. That was three years ago, and they are half dead and look awful.

A Reed Warbler has been heard singing in the Diana fountain reed bed, the first of the year here.

The Coot chicks in the Italian Garden fountain have started to come out of their nest in the irises. I think there are six -- four out in front, and two still on the nest.


There's now a new nest in another pool. Paul saw seven eggs.


A single Greylag gosling has appeared on the Serpentine.


The father saw another Greylag ...


... chased it away ...


... and returned in triumph.


A Mallard is nesting in the reeds to the east of the Lido. I only found the nest today, but the ducklings are already several weeks old.


Another Mallard has taken her ducklings on to a different Mute Swan nest. Evidently the attraction is the insects swarming in the mess made by the swans.


And this is the brood of ducklings we saw yesterday, sadly reduced to five. They were next to the seven Egyptian goslings, whose parents had both stupidly flown off to attack another Egyptian leaving them unprotected.


A single and unauthorised Dusky Cranesbill flower has come up in the border in the Flower Walk. A Common Carder bee singled it out for a visit.


Someone painted Peter Pan purple in the night. Paul took this picture just before a hastily summoned team with a jet washer turned up to clean it.

2 comments:

  1. Why purple, I wonder. A strange choice of colour for a protest, if protest it was.

    Greylags have been doing poorly in the park, haven't they? I think you said they didn't have much succeess breeding.
    Tinúviel

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    1. Purple to go with the flowers in the background? Anyway an odd choice, since purple paint is hard to find and I have never seen it on offer in a spray can.

      Almost all the Greylags and Canadas have now realised that trying to nest in the park is a hopeless venture. They are now nesting elsewhere and bringing their teenagers into the park as soon as they can fly. Intelligent and adaptable birds.

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