Autumn colours

Heavy morning rain provided a bathing place for some Feral Pigeons.

A clear spell brought out the young Little Owl near the Round Pond before thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Long-Tailed Tits hunted along the Flower Walk.

A Magpie contemplated a kite stuck in a tree.

Most of the autumn colour in the park comes from American trees: sweetgum shown here, red oaks, plum-leafed hawthorn.

Our native trees can manage some quiet yellows as a background for quarrelling Black-Headed Gulls ...

... or a fishing Grey Heron.

An unusually clear view of the last moments of a perch. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for a dramatic picture.

The female Mute Swan in the Italian Garden was roped in as an extra for a fashion shoot.

Something not needed by swans.

A pair of Egyptian Geese used a dead tree to claim territory. The trees they use for their noisy displays are usually different from the ones where they quietly choose their nest holes.

A Gadwall did nothing, stylishly.

Shovellers cruised past Peter Pan.

You tend to think of them as medium-sized ducks a bit smaller than Mallards, and of Pochards as small ducks slightly larger than Tufted Ducks, so it's a surprise when you see the two side by side. This shot was taken across the lake with a 600mm lens, so any perspective effects are completely flattened and you are seeing the true sizes.

It's a good year for yew berries. Let's hope the winter thrushes arrive for their share before all the fruit is taken by squirrels and the wasteful Rose-Ringed Parakeets which chew berries once before spitting them out, and can strip a tree in a couple of hours.

Fairy Ring mushrooms are coming up all over the grass.

So is Honey Fungus in the Flower Walk, unfortunately. It's picturesque but has already killed a magnolia tree just along the path.