It was mild and sunny, a great relief after the past ten days. A Robin singing in a tree in the Flower Walk was interrupted by a Starling on the railings below.
There was a male Chaffinch in the same tree.
A Jay preened on a branch and flew away.
Another was waiting for a peanut.
So was a Jackdaw near the Speke obelisk.
But there was no sign of the Little Owl here today, and the one at the Round Pond remained stubbornly in the back of his hole when he might have come out to enjoy the sunshine.
The familiar Pied Wagtail was looking for insects among fallen oak leaves at the Serpentine outflow.
Mark Williams reports from St James's Park that a new Coal Tit has turned up ...
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... and also an unusually bold Song Thrush which hops around on the lawn, and no doubt gets its share of treats.
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The Little Grebe was still in the fountain pool in the Italian Garden ...
... where a Moorhen was climbing around on one of the spray heads.
A Cormorant fished on the lake below ...
... and the new pair of Mute Swans were preening together on the nesting island.
The jilted female has come back on to the Long Water and was hanging around a few yards away. If she gets chased off, at least she can fly out easily now that the ice has melted.
A preening Egyptian Goose shone in the sunlight.
Very glad it is mild and sunny today. I wonder if it is already noticeable in GB's latitude that the days are starting to get longer? I don't know why, but at least in Spain days appear to begin to grow longer from Saint Lucy's feast day on, on Dec 13th ("Santa Lucía, menguan las noches y crecen los días"). Astronomically it cannot be, strictly speaking, but the appearance that it is so is clear.
ReplyDeleteTinúviel
Yes, because of something to do with the angle of the earth's axis relative to the sun the earliest sunset is well before the solstice, in fact earlier than St Lucy's Day. The actual date varies with the latitude, with the discrepancy becoming greater as you go south. But the actual day length is shortest at the solstice, and late sunset means late sunrise. The latest sunrise occurs in early January.
DeleteIt's an interesting point. Have noticed that we seem to have around 20 more minutes of daylight per day in December now than when I first came to London in 2010. Could there have been a slight shift of the Earth's axis, possibly?
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the city air getting a bit cleaner from the ultra-low emission zone. When I were a lad (and dinosaurs roamed the earth) we had proper smog and on one occasion in the early 1950s it got completely dark at lunchtime.
DeleteAs for the song thrush, have thrown a sultana for it, but the bird flew off in terror. Am hoping it will watch and learn from the blackbirds, who know a treat when they see one 😉
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will with persistence. I managed to make a Mistle Thrush realise what was going on, but only once.
DeleteLovely to see the Song Thrush posing so well.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous mild sunny day yesterday-such contrast to last week. Our group in Kew Gardens even managed a Red Admiral in flight-totally unexpected after the freeze!
Remarkable butterfly sighting. I did manage to see a couple of Buff-Tailed Bumblebees today in the Rose Garden.
DeleteI have just bamboozled myself over sunrise times at www.timeanddate.com. It is true what you say. Sunrise today is 8.03 and it sticks at 8.06 for about a week over the turn of the year. It doesn't come earlier than 8.03 until 11th January.
ReplyDeleteSorry - it interested me.
The Wikipedia article on 'Analemma' is interesting, showing how clock time and sun time slowly oscillate.
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