The Little Grebe is still unobtrusively going around the Long Water. There was a distant glimpse of it on the far side of the Vista next to a Pochard, which shows how tiny it is.
A Great Crested Grebe was fishing under the balcony of the Lido restaurant. The water is still too murky for underwater shots.
A Moorhen enjoyed a shower in the marble fountain in the Italian Garden. You wouldn't know it was the finest Carrara marble under that coating of algae. Whenever it's cleaned, it gets just as green in a few days.
The two Mute Swans in the Italian Garden were only a few feet apart but not taking any notice of each other. This is the recently arrived one. Readers will know that you can tell the sex of an adult swan from the size of the knob on its bill. When I first saw this swan I thought it was a male with a smallish knob, but from the way two swans have been behaving it seems to be a female with a largish one. I think the resident male, who is very aggressive, would have driven out another male at once.
The gravel strip at the Vista is thronged with Cormorants.
Someone had been throwing down rolls beside the Serpentine. A Lesser Black-Backed Gull was pecking one enthusiastically.
Usually the birds here don't get very excited about bread, but these must have been sweet because there was lively competition for one.
Meanwhile, a Carrion Crow was eating a Feral Pigeon left by the killer gull without any interference at all.
A Grey Wagtail appeared briefly on the water's edge near the Lido restaurant.
There was also a Wren which came out of a bush for a moment.
Starlings preened on a chair on the terrace while waiting for a chance to raid a table.
A Great Tit posed among pyracantha berries in the Flower Walk.
The teenage Little Owl at the Round Pond looked out of the hole in the dead tree.
A young fox strolled through the grass on the edge of the Long Water near Peter Pan.
In the leaf yard, something had slashed the trunk of a cherry tree in several places and it was oozing quantities of sticky sap.
The royal cart is still bringing loads of flowers from the floral tribute for the Queen.
just came to let you know i appreciate your dedication and love the stuff you post <3
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading this. About the Queen's flowers it is a shame that the royal family didn't ask for donations to a non-controversial charity instead - like the world land trust. In the extremely unlikely event I become famous enough to get flowers from lots of people when I die, I would definitively tell my family to do that.
ReplyDeleteThey could ask, but no one would take any notice. People now lay flowers, and it's unstoppable. Apparently Windsor Castle and Balmoral are also deluged with flowers.
DeleteI may be in the minority and surely it is a bit controversial, but I actually am heartened by the sight of so many flowers. Laying flowers for the dead goes back millenia, and it goes on to show that human nature when all is said and done remains the same. That is something nowadays. " nunc non e tumulo fortunataque favilla nascentur violae?“ (even if Persius was his disagreeable cynic, black-pilled self).
DeleteTinúviel
I think a Neanderthal burial was found where a mass of pollen grains showed that the body had been covered with flowers.
Delete