I think this Rose-Ringed Parakeet was interested in the reduced reflection of itself in the convex glass of one of the old gas lamp posts in Hyde Park. It saw a little parakeet inside and was trying to get at it.
This is one of a pair of resident Mistle Thrushes often seen on the East Lawn by the Albert Memorial.
On the ground below a female Chaffinch was foraging.
The tatty Blue Tit in the Flower Walk is looking slightly less bedraggled, but it will never be a smart bird.
In contrast to the nervous Little Owl by the Speke obelisk, the young one in the dead tree at the Round Pond has been photographed almost every day of its life and is quite used to it.
A Wood Pigeon reached perilously for an acorn in the oak beside the Long Water. Of course it fell out a moment later.
Two Cormorants at Peter Pan displayed and nattered at each other. I don't know enough about Cormorants to tell whether this is a pair display or rivalry.
The boat hire operation has shut down for the winter. A Cormorant and some gulls occupied the platform.
The Little Grebe was visible at a distance on the Long Water. When it had finished preening, it did that movement that Jane Austen described in Persuasion. Louisa, recovering from her injuries sustained by jumping off the Cobb at Lyme Regis, is so nervous that at any sudden noise she 'starts and wriggles like a young dab-chick upon the water'.
A Moorhen played with a leaf on the edge of the Serpentine.
All the geese were washing. Like preening, washing is infectious. An Egyptian ...
... and a Greylag had a good splash.
The process is finished with a vigorous flap to settle the wing feathers.
The Shoveller drakes on the Long Water are coming into their breeding plumage.
Mistle thrush pair Buck Hill 10.0 am, one later in Rowan tree with Blackbirds, also to my consternation pair Parakeets, all eating berries, if Parakeets persist I fear there will be nothing left for Redwings when they arrive.
ReplyDeleteDavid Jeffreys
The last time I looked there were practically no rowan fruits left. This happens every year now. The parakeets waste a lot of them. There has never been enough to tempt Waxwings by the time they get here. I have encouraged the park management to plant more diverse and longer lasting food trees, especially hawthorn and diverse Sorbus species, but you might as well try to advise a block of wood.
DeleteThe cormorant and the gulls are going to be disappointed when they return and find that the boating has only temporarily shut down and will be back when they get the computer in the boathouse working again.
ReplyDeleteI offered to pay cash but, unlike Bluebird Boats, they have no system in place for taking cash. I then offered to pay double the next time, but, unlike Bluebird Boats, they have no system in place for using initiative.
Sad but absolutely to be expected from the Royal Parks management.
DeleteYou can pay only through credit card or phone at a Royal Park concession? Dear God, this is going really quick. Shudder.
DeleteI see Parakeets don't pass the mirror test. Well, not a few humans wouldn't either provided sufficient alcohol ingestion!
Tinúviel
Yes, the whole economy of the Royal Parks now depends on your having the mark of the beast and the number of his name. Even the public lavatories have card readers, and if the computer is down, too bad.
DeleteI was disappointed in the failure of the parakeet to understand her reflection. But maybe the smaller members of the parrot family don't have the intellect of the larger ones, or indeed of just about any corvid. I think that the smallest members, budgerigars, can be fooled by a mirror into thinking they have a companion.
My canary bird wasn't fooled by a mirror that we put up so that he'd believe there was another male nearby and would be encouraged to sing when he was feeling lazy, He royally ignored it and went about his business, which makes me suspect he knew the mirror was just his own reflection.
DeleteTinúviel
I'm not sure the mirror test for intelligence stands up to examination. Feral Pigeons in towns, which are only reasonably bright, see their reflection in windows when they're on the sill and take it as normal. But Egyptian Geese certainly attack their reflections -- I've seen that several times.
DeleteLovely images. You don't think the parakeet was just "investigating" (aka destroying) the light, as they do so many things?
ReplyDeleteQuite likely. It was certainly trying to break open the lamp by picking at the frame. But it did spend much of the time looking at its reflection.
DeleteNarcissism perhaps?
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