Wednesday 3 August 2022

Wood Pigeons upside down

In an elder tree by the leaf yard Wood Pigeons hung upside down to reach the last ripe berries and inevitably fell off.


A Stock Dove perched in a chestnut.


A Wren was making a loud fuss beside the bridge.


A Carrion Crow preened on the dead willow by the Italian Garden.


Another looked expectantly down from the kiosk at the Dell restaurant, waiting for a table to be vacated so it could grab the leftovers.


The Peregrines were on and off the tower.


The female Little Owl by the Round Pond was in her usual horse chestnut tree.


One of the owlets could be seen in the next tree.


A young Grey Heron came down from the nest and stood uncertainly on a wire basket to look around.


The returning Black-Headed Gulls have brought this year's young with them.


There were fifteen Cormorants on the Long Water. Here are five of them on the raft.


Moorhens amused themselves by climbing on a fallen branch.


The single Mallard duckling was on the Serpentine diving busily for algae. It may be obliged to dive because the edible green algae at the edge are overgrown with poisonous and vile-smelling blue-green algae, which have now spread all round the Serpentine.


A Comma butterfly drank nectar from the florets of a buddleia blossom at Peter Pan.


A Jersey Tiger Moth settled on a lime tree at the foot of Buck Hill.

6 comments:

  1. Today's picture ought to illustrate the entry for Tiger Moth in any insect guide. It illustrates why it got that name to perfection.

    I would watch a video compilation of pigeons falling off for overreaching.. There is something hilarious about them.
    Tinúviel

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    1. It's curious that the moth that was first called Tiger in English is not the striped Jersey Tiger, which for a long time was found only in the Channel Islands and is quite a recent arrival on the mainland, but the Garden Tiger, which has a reticulated pattern more like that of a giraffe.

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  2. It's amazing how common Jersey Tigers have become in recent years. I remember being so excited to find one in South Devon over 20 years ago when that was the only place on the mainland they were found. I read somebody in susses caught c150 at his moth trap a couple of days back.

    Nice shot of the Stock Dove.

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    1. It's strange that Jersey Tigers have done so well when Garden Tigers are in decline.

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  3. Yes when I was a teenager the woolly bear caterpillars of Garden Tiger were frequent in my parent's garden. They do seem to have largely disappeared from the London area but still common up north.

    I did see some images of larvae at Hutchinson's Bank near Croydon, so would be nice to think they might come back?

    Though they aren't around here yet, gorgeous Scarlet Tigers also seem to be spreading Would be good to see these locally!

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    1. I'd never even heard of a Scarlet Tiger and had to look it up. A spectacular creature.

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