Three Blackcaps chicks shifted impatiently on a twig waiting for a parent to arrive with some food. This is the family a few yards north of the Henry Moore sculpture.
A Wren stared out from a tree behind the Albert Memorial ...
... and a male Chaffinch perched a few yards away.
A Robin in the shrubbery near the bridge was looking dishevelled from feeding its young ...
... and a Dunnock lurked in a patch of nettles.
A large family of Long-Tailed Tits rushed around in a variegated holly tree near the Italian Garden.
The Tawny Owl was in his usual oak all day.
Another reliable bird: this Grey Wagtail spends most of its time on the small waterfall in the Dell, where there is an all-you-can-eat buffet of midges.
A pair of Great Crested Grebes were fishing under the Italian Garden. One caught a perch.
I hadn't seen the young grebe since it wandered on to the Serpentine, but Neil saw it yesterday back on the Long Water. A relief that it had the good sense to return to its parents.
The Coots nesting for the second time on the post at Peter Pan have brought out six chicks. Let's hope they fare better than the last brood, which were soon eaten by gulls.
The extended family of Canada Geese on the Serpentine, five goslings with two sets of parents, usually behave in a dignified manner. But sometimes they have a moment of rushing around crazily and diving.
The Mute Swans nesting in an exposed place at the Lido have done very well to hatch six cygnets, and so far haven't lost any on the open lake. Thanks to Duncan Campbell for this video of them cruising by.
But for some reason the swans on the much more sheltered Long Water are down to four. Their mother led them on to the nesting island.
Their father and the male from the nest on the gravel bank circled each other menacingly. I think there will be trouble when this nest hatches out.
The three Mandarin ducklings were seen again today, but again no trace of their mother. Two drakes came over to the Vista.
The two Mallard ducklings in the Italian Garden are also without a mother, but seem perfectly happy in each other's company.
A patch of Heuchera in the Rose Garden attracted several kinds of bee, including this Honeybee.
A Rose Chafer beetle walked slowly over an oxeye daisy beside the Long Water.
That Blackcap family is doing extremely well. Very glad they were lucky,
ReplyDeleteIs that the same Grey Wagtail that just waits for midges to fall into its beak rather than chasing them?
Tinúviel
Yes, it is the same Grey Wagtail, or at least it's one of the same two in the Dell. The density of midges over that stream is astonishing but doesn't come out in photographs because most of them are out of focus.
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