Tuesday 1 November 2022

Coal Tit dismantling a rose

A morning of wind and heavy showers with sunny intervals.

A Coal Tit in the Rose Garden pulled a rose apart, looking for insects.


Several flocks of Long-Tailed Tits were going around the lake.


During a shower a Great Tit saw me in the tunnel under the bridge changing my camera battery, and flew through and perched on a gatepost waiting to be fed.


The male Chaffinch in the Flower Walk came out for a pine nut.


A Magpie perched on the end of a bench hoping that the man eating his lunch at the other end would share his sandwich.


Some views of the Jackdaws in Kensington Gardens. They are charming and polite birds, not at all like the pushy Carrion Crows.


A young Cormorant had a scratch on a post.


The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull stood against a background of fallen leaves, waiting for a Feral Pigeon to come to the edge and start washing.


One of the Moorhens in the Dell lifted a leaf to see if there was anything edible under it.


The male Mute Swan from the Italian Garden went down on to the Long Water again, but this time the dominant male was waiting for him. They edged warily around each other. The Italian Garden male is clearly not easily frightened.


His mate watched the performance through the balustrade.


The Tufted drake in the picture above is one of the few that has got into full breeding plumage. Most of the rest are still changing.


A Shoveller washed on the Long Water. A passing Black-Headed Gull couldn't help copying it.


Victor decided to do a bit of guerrilla bathing at the Lido, but hadn't reckoned with the slippery algae on the sloping concrete edge.


A bramble has managed to grow right up to the top of the yew tree north of Peter Pan. It celebrated its achievement by flowering at a most unseasonal time.


Two fine pictures from Rainham Marshes by Tom: a Red Kite low over the river wall ...


... and a Grey Seal in the river eating a fish, probably a flounder.

6 comments:

  1. Jackdaws are too polite for their own good. They get routinely evicted from good nesting holes by lowly pigeons.

    I like how cool the pair of Tufties are in the menacing swans picture. I love their "meh" expression in the middle of a testosterone explosion.

    Striking picture of the guerrilla diver!
    Tinúviel

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    1. Somehow Jackdaws have taken over in Richmond Park, almost entirely evicting the Carrion Crows, Magpies and Jays. There are literally thousands of them -- it's a very big park. They must have been doing something right, but I don't know what.

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  2. And did the man share his sandwich?

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    1. No, he didn't. But I gave the Magpie a peanut as a modelling fee.

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  3. At least the Coal Tit seemed to find an edible morsel in the rose. Bet the gardeners won't be too impressed with its destruction!

    I think Tom's seal shows a Grey Seal with the typical Roman nose of that species. Both species frequent the river there.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the correction on the seal.

      I've often seen tits ripping up flower buds, but never attacking a full-sized flower in that way.

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