Today's top picture is a splendid shot by by Rudraksha Chodankar: a female Pied Flycatcher in Kensington Gardens on the west side of the West Carriage drive south of Mound Gate, eating an unfortunate Southern Oak Bush Cricket (Meconema meridionale). There have been recent sightings of Pied Flycatchers in various parts of London. The cricket is a relatively new species in Britain.
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By the time I got there it had gone, and there was only a Robin scolding a Magpie in a tree above it. Probably the Magpie had driven the Flycatcher away.
After I put up a picture of a Carrion Crow eating a satsuma on Wednesday, Jim commented on the general dislike of birds for citrus fruit. Well, crows seem to be an exception, and today I saw a Crow eating a halved orange and evidently enjoying it. When it brought the fruit over from the fence where some vague person had put it out for the Rose-Ringed Parakeets, it was chased by several other crows eager for a share.
A Jackdaw was expecting a more palatable peanut.
Long-Tailed Tits milled around in the trees near the bridge in pursuit of insects.
The young Little Owl at the Round Pond was in its usual hole.
The Grey Heron had the nesting island on the Long Water all to itself while the Mute Swans were farther down the lake engaged in a territorial dispute.
Tom was at Dagenham Chase, where he found this Lesser Whitethroat -- as well as another Pied Flycatcher.
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Three new Moorhen chicks have appeared on the Serpentine from a nest in one of the small boathouses.
The Mallard that stole the Coot nest at the bridge for its ducklings has moved out and the Coots were back in possession.
There were Pochard drakes all the way up the edge of the Long Water. Conehead 54 reckoned that there were 45 of them, more than we usually see -- which is good news for a Red-Listed bird.
The youngest Egyptian gosling picked up grit to grind its tough diet of dry grass ...
... and had a drink from the lake, which is now fairly clean again. The blue-green algae have been washed away by the recent rain and swimming has resumed at the Lido.
A strange sight in the Rose Garden: a Common Wasp and a Honeybee were engaged in a furious fight. They skittered in and out of a flower bed and I was lucky to get even this bad picture of them.
The little mauve flowers of Verbena bonariensis are remarkably long lasting. It's over five weeks since I last photographed a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsing on them, and today they looked as fresh as ever.
A Common Blue butterfly on a woolly leaf of Lamb's Ears (Stachys byzantina) arranged itself to be least disturbed by the gentle breeze.
The early bird captures the grasshopper; Great shot, Rudraksha Chodankar!
ReplyDeleteAnd the colours of the common blue, so vivid, just like electric blue.
It would have been interesting to see how a flycatcher, which usually catches insects in flight, takes a grasshopper off the ground.
DeleteI am coming to believe birds will just eat anything smaller than themselves if the opportunity arises.
DeleteIt appears crows are true omnivores! Fastidiousness doesn't become them.
Tinúviel
It's not a grasshopper but one of the oak bush-crickets. They are arboreal, and although they are secretive by day and not confined to oaks, Pied Flycatchers might be expected to be good at detecting them. Jim
DeleteThanks for the identification. I also had an email from David Element giving the exact species, Southern Oak Bush Cricket, Meconema meridionale., so I've put that in the blog.
DeleteAs for the fastidiousness of crows, I have read that Ravens are very timid with carrion, being rightly afraid that the creature might not be dead after all and might turn round and bite back.
That's a lovely shot of the Pied Flycatcher. It's a bird I'd never seen in London until Friday when I saw the bird in Walpole Park, Ealing which was still there yesterday for the third day.
ReplyDeleteAs you say the Southern Oak Bush-cricket is a relative newcomer, apparently hitch-hiked here on vehicles (they can't fly) but it's now the bush-cricket I most often encounter in gardens.
The guy who found the Kensington Gardens yesterday also counted 45 Pochard on his e-bird list too.
I saw a Pied Flycatcher in Kensington Gardens about ten years ago, briefly and I didn't get a picture. Rare visitors here. Will look for it around the Long Water which is where the more frequent Spotted Flycatchers go.
ReplyDeleteMy largest count of Common Pochards on the Long Water has been 42. Now we need some females to arrive. They have a terribly slanted sex ratio.
I saw a Pied Flycatcher in Kensington Gardens about ten years ago, briefly and I didn't get a picture. Rare visitors here. Will look for it around the Long Water which is where the more frequent Spotted Flycatchers go.
ReplyDeleteMy largest count of Common Pochards on the Long Water has been 42. Now we need some females to arrive. They have a terribly slanted sex ratio.
Amazing pic of the bee and the wasp - wonder what triggered the fight?
ReplyDeleteI've since been told that it's quite common and (spoiler) the wasp always wins. But I'd never seen this before.
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