The male Little Owl at the Speke obelisk came out in the mild sunshine.
Usually he's very shy and rushes into his hole when observed but today, with three people pointing cameras at him, he was just a bit restless.
He was heard calling earlier this morning, an encouraging sign that he may still have a mate somewhere. We were worried that he'd lost her.
The young male Little Owl near the Round Pond was in his favourite small lime tree. It was rather windy so he had come down lower than usual to avoid the flailing leaves.
A Robin in the Flower Walk ...
... and the usual female Coal Tit were expecting to be fed.
A Cormorant at Peter Pan shone in the sunlight.
Another was fishing under the parapet of the Italian Garden and caught a perch, along with some algae that it had to remove before swallowing the fish.
A Herring Gull stamped its foot in the dead leaves at the edge of the lake. This seems to be a way of bringing out little edible water creatures -- an aquatic version of the worm dance they do on lawns.
One of of regular visitors from Poland, the Black-Headed Gull T4UN, was in his usual place on the north shore of the Serpentine.
The fountains in the Italian Garden have gone wrong yet again. I'm sure they never did when they were worked by a great clanking Victorian steam engine belching filthy smoke and the water arrived in massive cast iron pipes, but modern machinery is often too clever for its own good. The inert spray heads provided perches for a Lesser Black-Backed Gull ...
... Mallards and a Coot ...
... and a Moorhen.
Bill Haines has clearly had a visit with his ringing tools and has caught one of the young Moorhens at the Vista.
It's interesting, and even important, to keep track of birds, and it was fascinating to hear of the Coot that flew from here to St Petersburg. But I can't help feeling sorry for a bird that has to wear an ankle tag for the rest of its life.
The male Mute Swan from the Italian Garden had come down on to the lake and was standing defiantly on the dominant swans' nesting island. If they come back and see him here, there will be big trouble.
A couple of Gadwall drakes had flown into the fountain pools.
The lavender in the Rose Garden is still full of Honeybees and Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.
That's a look of defiance if there ever was one. Fearsome bird.
ReplyDeleteVery happy to see the male Little Owl again, and in such excellent health, even if he continues to be a tad skittish.
Tinúviel
Little Owls really do have facial expressions, not the same as ours of course and hard to interpret. But I think the one at Speke really does look annoyed at being photographed and filmed by three people. And I interpret the look of the Round Pond owl as mild interest in his usual daily visitor. I was alone when I took this picture.
DeleteAt the moment the dominant male swan from the Long Water has been completely neglecting his home territory and swaggering around the Serpentine with his mate and partly adopted family. The male swan from the Italian Garden, pictured today on the island, has been the only swan on the Long Water, with his mate remaining in the fountains. Heaven knows how this is going to end, but I fear it will be violently.