The ice on the Long Water is melting but there's still enough to make a meeting place for some gulls, mostly Black-Headed.
Virginia got a beautiful picture of a Black-Headed Gull taking off.
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More Mute Swans had come in from the Serpentine and were hanging around the gravel bank. But as soon as enough of the ice has gone to allow the dominant pair to come out of the Italian Garden they'll get chased away.
In the fountain pool the Gadwall drake was chivvying the Little Grebe to make it dive and stir up more food for the ducks.
After the last prod the grebe thought it was getting a bit rough and swam away.
A Cormorant had been fishing in another pool. It caught one very small fish but no more, and got bored and flew away. Ahmet Amerikali photographed it taking off.
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I think it's always the same Grey Heron that hangs around the fence of the Henry Moore enclosure hoping a rat will carelessly come out.
Another kept a general rat watch from the top of the sculpture.
The usual crew turned out to be fed in the Flower Walk. A Great Tit took a pine nut from Belinda's hand.
A Blue Tit ...
... and a Coal Tit waited in the corkscrew hazel bush ...
... with a Jay on a lower branch.
A Chaffinch wanted a pine nut thrown up in the air for him to catch.
A Robin perched on the other side of the path.
A single Long-Tailed Tit flitted around behind the Albert Memorial.
Snowdrops have come out here -- proper snowdrops, not the large cultivated autumn-flowering ones at the Dell.
Winter may be dire, but you do get the loveliest of ffairytale winter landscapes, like that bed of wild snowdrops.
ReplyDeleteSo the Little Grebe gets prodded by the Gadwall to get to work? A bit demanding, that duck.
Tinúviel
The Little Grebe doesn't seem to resent being prodded by a big duck. It may go away for a few minutes but it always comes back. Gadwalls are quite gentle, not like Mallards, and there is no malice in the gesture.
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