On a hot sunny day the Little Owls near the Round Pond were keeping in the shade. This is the female ...
... and here is the male.
The owlets could be heard but were invisible in the dense horse chestnut leaves.
At the Serpentine Gallery both owlets were visible on the trunk of the sweet chestnut next to their nest tree ...
... and their mother was on a lower branch.
A Mistle Thrush was collecting insects near the Round Pond. So they are nesting again: usually the nest is to the northeast of here not far from the Bayswater Road.
A flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked down the Flower Walk.
A Great Crested Grebe hunted small fish just below the surface at the edge of the lake.
The Coots nesting on the water filter at the Italian Garden have given up and tipped the egg into the water, which they usually do if they detect that it's infertile. A Moorhen contemplated it.
An Egyptian gosling sheltered from the sun under its mother.
While I was taking that picture there was a commotion as a Herring Gull carried off an unfortunate Coot chick.
When I looked back at the Egyptian the other goslings had run for shelter behind her, and no wonder.
Cindy Chen got a fine picture of a Six-Spot Burnet Moth in flight at the Rudolf Steiner bench.
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But she only got it just in time, as the gardeners have cut down the beautiful long grass studded with ragwort where they were breeding, destroying the colony. Such events are all too common in the park, where orders are given by people behind desks who never look at what's going on.
Two Brown Hawker dragonflies were chasing each other around near the bridge. They were more or less impossible to photograph, but I just managed to grab a record shot.
The Emperor dragonflies at the Italian Garden are easier, though still a bit of a challenge.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee's pollen bags were filled to bursting with pollen from a clump of Verbena bonariensis in the Flower Walk.
East of the Lido Honeybees and a Vestal Cuckoo Bee browsed on the peculiar spiky flower heads of Eryngium, also called Sea Holly.
I look back at the sad dearth of owls of some months past and I can hardly believe our luck now. We should count our blessings.
ReplyDeleteHow are the Grebe chicks doing? We haven't seen much of them lately,
Tinúviel
Indeed. The owls and their offspring have appeared at what would otherwise be a very dull time, which is partly why I am publishing so many pictures of them.
DeleteBut it is not a good year for grebes -- at least so far, as here they can continue to breed right through the summer. I don't think any chicks have survived, and the extra adults that arrived on the lake a couple of months ago seem to have left. There are still a few grebes to be seen, both on the Long Water and on the Serpentine, but that's all. I hope to be proved wrong.
Interesting that you have few Great Crested Grebes because I only found one pair at Ruislip Lido, 3 in Richmond Park but when I went to Staines Reservoir on Monday to see the Red-necked Grebe in breeding plumage there were over 40 Great Crested there & also 6 Black-necked.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen a Brown Hawker yet this year so good to see them here.
Good to know that there are plenty of grebes elsewhere. The fact that you saw 40 GCGs suggests that they may just have flown in and had not yet abandoned their flocking behaviour and spread out.
DeleteLove the second shot of an owlet – so fluffy!
ReplyDeleteLittle owls are amazing. I've just returned from a trip to California and learned that they have burrowing owls; they look very similar to our little owls but nest in ground burrows, hence the name, obv.
Little Owls will also nest in cavities, for example under walls, if there are no tree holes available. This is often the case in the more arid areas around the Mediterranean.
DeleteCindy, absolutely stunning action shots here and in previous posts. Great job! Would love to know how you managed them.
ReplyDeleteAmy way members of the public can influence gardening policies in Royal Parks which are harmful for insects?
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to get the park management to abandon environmentally harmful actions for many years, without the slightest result.
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