A Starling visited a nest hole in an oak tree. From the flapping display I think it's a female trying to encourage her mate to help with feeding the chicks.
A Robin sang in the Flower Walk, answered by a rival a short way down the path.
But the Blackbird I filmed yesterday wasn't in a singing mood.
A Chiffchaff sang from a treetop near Peter Pan. They are almost impossible to film, as they jump around between each brief burst of song.
The Great Tit chicks in the pump now have fully developed wings. They will be leaving their nest soon.
Neil tells me that the female parent will take food from his hand, so we may be able to follow the family. And Mike Harris has discovered another Great Tit nest in an iron bollard near Rotten Row, which I will investigate tomorrow and see what kind of picture I can get.
The Grey Wagtail in the Italian Garden was busy collecting insects for the young.
This bird is certainly one of the two surviving chicks from last year's nest at the Lido restaurant. Now a young adult, it's beginning to develop a grey bib. Males have a black bib.
A Great Crested Grebe dozed peacefully in the warm sunshine.
The Coots' nest near the Serpentine outflow, a remarkable construction built up from the bottom in 4 feet of water, was washed away by a brisk west wind a couple of days ago. The indomitable Coots have now rebuilt it.
The nest on the old water filter under the Italian Garden has seven eggs in it.
The three chicks in the fountain are still in good order. A parent flapped clumsily out of the planter. They can't climb like agile Moorhens, which walk neatly up the netting.
These Coots are still foolishly trying to build a second nest under the fountain, a place where no nest ever succeeds. At least it saves them from fighting the other pair of Coots nesting here.
A pair of Canada Geese got too close to the Mute Swans' nest east of the Lido, and were attacked by the male swan. This is the ultra-aggressive swan that killed a rival male two years ago. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for this dramatic picture.
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The Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine still have seven goslings ...
... despite the Herring Gulls which are now back in force -- there were 70 or 80 on the Serpentine. I think that what has encouraged them to return is the appearance of new pedalos on the lake, of which there are now 30 with more still being delivered. These give them a place to perch and socialise.
One of the little Egyptians is always wandering off from its mother as it picks insects off the surface of the water. The young birds need plenty of protein in their diet to grow, and insects supply much of it. But it runs a greater risk of being snatched by a gull. It's the conformists that survive, and an independent spirit puts one in deadly danger.
A Green-Veined White butterfly perched on an oxeye daisy beside the Long Water.
The flower in the last photo is an oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), not Michaelmas daisy
ReplyDeleteThank you. Instantly corrected. As soon as I get the butterfly right I get the flower wrong.
DeleteI wish I could remember where I read about Great Tits' strategies for surviving: where food was adequate more timid birds did better, whereas where food was scarce bolder birds survived at greater numbers. The surviving populations passed off their genes to their descendants and thus did they explain the different characters of the birds. I guess goslings cannot follow the same strategy.
ReplyDeleteCanadas will attack grizzly bears, they say. But a swan is still a swan.
Tinúviel
I hadn't seen that information about Great Tits, but it makes good sense. Here they are in their element, with plenty of brambles and bushes and trees with holes. The Egyptians, African birds, are not well suited to an English park lake with little cover and lots of hungry gulls. After an initial surge when they arrived, numbers fell a little and stayed static. They are just about coping, but not like the Canadas with their superior childcare strategy who have spread everywhere.
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