It was a beautiful day after early rain. The Albert Memorial was looking splendidly gaudy in the sunshine.
In the Flower Walk behind the Memorial it was impossible not to take another picture of the Coal Tit in the corkscrew hazel demanding yet another pine nut.
Joan Chatterley photographed a Great Tit on her hand, with the hazel bush in the background.
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A Blackbird perched on an ancient tree near the leaf yard. This one is nervous even by Blackbird standards and I have never got a really good photograph of him.
Two exotic woodpeckers: an Acorn Woodpecker in the Parque de las Garzas ('Heron Park') in Cali, Colombia, by David Holland ...
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... and a Grey-Headed Woodpecker in Lappeenranta in Finland photographed by Jukka Tiipana (who visits our park every year).
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Also from Lappeenranta, a magnificent Goshawk. I wish we had them in London. They are doing well in Berlin, and we can offer them an endless supply of Feral Pigeons.
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A bronze pigeon drank from a puddle in the Italian Garden. Sparrowhawks do pass over here, so it's not entirely safe.
The recent heavy rain has brought out the little stream that runs down the side of the Vista, and a couple of Carrion Crows were bathing in it.
The Little Grebe was diving busily as usual in the Italian Garden.
It helped some Mallards for a few minutes ...
... but it's much more at ease with the Gadwalls.
The new dominant Mute Swan pair were preening. Through their union they now own both the garden and the Long Water all the way to the bridge.
A female Tufted Duck washed and preened in the same pool.
What a successful merger. It's like old times, when kingdoms would be united through marriage.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the Coal Tit is entirely too aware of the effect it has on you!
Tinúviel
I wonder what the swans see in those tiny pools. People feeding them, I suppose. And any territory is good territory.
DeleteYes, I think that Coal Tit has realised that the imperious stare works very well. It is hilarious being bossed about by something weighing 7 grams.
What a stunning Goshawk! I hope they do spread towards London (there are occasional birds, though the bird I saw was an obvious escapee as it had obvious jesses as it flew, panicking every bird in sight!).
ReplyDeleteA couple of fine woodpeckers in the exotica. I have seen both in the wild. Last year in northern Greece we had lovely views of 2 Grey-headed feeding on a lawn of a restaurant we took a drink at.
Both those excellent pictures from Finland were taken in the half-light of a Finnish midwinter day. Even in the south of the country there are only about two hours in which it's possible to photograph at all, and even then using settings that an English wildlife photographer would reject out of hand, ISO 12000 and 1/200 second.
DeleteI am amazed that Jukka manages to get photos under such conditions. I would probably get camera shake.
DeleteHe has a new camera, Fuji with a 600mm lens. about which I know nothing. Probably it has very superior stabilisation. I have taken pictures at 1/250 myself: high failure rate but some have been clear.
DeleteI would love to see Goshawks in London they are increasing in number so maybe one day if we live long enough.
ReplyDeleteMaybe before I fall off the twig.
DeleteI certainly hope that you live long enough to see Goshawks in Hyde Park.
DeleteI was hoping, more realistically, for Red Kites and Little Egrets to become common, but neither has happened yet.
DeleteIt is estimated that in Helsinki, capital of Finland, there is nowadays 50 pairs of breeding goshawks. It is a new phenomenon, happened in the last decades. There certainly is a lot of food for them: rats and rabbits mainly. And at least in the cities they can live in peace with people today.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that everywhere raptors are moving into cities. There have only been Peregrines in London for perhaps 20 years, and I think it's the same with Sparrowhawks. In England you can put this down to intensive farming and the use of pesticides, but not in Finland.
DeleteI thought that they had used to live in cities but persecution and possibly pollution reduced their numbers every where. Red Kites were a famous site of London in Tudor times for example
DeleteRed Kites were deliberately exterminated in London during the 18th century. People simply don't understand the necessity of scavengers. They have been replaced by Carrion Crows.
DeleteIn wintertime there is a lot of more food in the cities than in the rural area for the predators. And hawks have learned that people are not hostile to them in the cities. So they have also started to breed there.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they should have reintroduced Hen Harriers to the remaining marshes in Essex rather than to an area stuffed with murderous gamekeepers.
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