A Grey Wagtail ran through the grass beside the Diana fountain.
A pair of Pied Wagtails on the Serpentine carefully skirted an aggressive Coot.
Another visited the Italian Garden.
Goldfinches chattered in the plane trees beside Rotten Row. There are more than usual at the moment -- generally the park is not a good place to see them and there are more in the streets.
The Parade Ground was busy with the returfing operation and the Redwings had taken to the trees, but there is still a good number of them ...
... and there are more in Kensington Gardens, this time near the Round Pond.
Someone has put up a fat ball feeder near the bridge, to the delight of the pair of Long-Tailed Tits who are nesting here.
The fierce Robin in the Flower Walk was alone in his tree after chasing off all the tits.
A Wren hopped about under a birch tree near the Lido.
A Blackbird in the Rose Garden found a larva.
The Wood Pigeon pair living in a plum tree beside the Serpentine have eaten most of the blossom.
The two pairs of Great Crested Grebes on the Serpentine had a territorial dispute by the boat platform.
The Little Grebe in the Italian Garden was alone in the pool, diving busily.
The dominant pair of Mute Swans had chased all their rivals off the Long Water, and returned to the Italian Garden to tout for food.
An Egyptian Goose stood on the Little Owls' nest tree by the Round Pond. There was no sign of an owl, not surprisingly as it was a raw day.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in the Rose Garden visited the hellebore flowers.
Joan Chatterley was at Cley Marshes in Norfolk, where she got a fine picture of a Long-Billed Dowitcher.
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That's an American bird, right? Wow!
ReplyDeleteThose Wagtails must have had too close encounters with Coots for their liking, to be so wary.
Tinúviel
Collins rates the Long-Billed Dowitcher as V*, fairly rare vagrant, and says 'Breeds in N America and E Siberia. Vagrant in Europe, several records annually in Britain & Ireland.' Have never seen one myself, not surprisingly.
DeletePosting this here because for whatever reason it won't let me post in today's entry:
ReplyDeleteLook at the Lapwings buzzing the Peregrine. Incredibly brave birds.
It looks like a miserable day. Much too cold for March, I think.
Tinúviel
I wish I could do something about the random malfunctions of Blogger. It wouldn't let me reply to you here until I had closed and reopened the browser. It seems that every time they fix some of the existing faults (such as a most annoying tendency to make YouTube posts come out blank) they introduce new ones.
DeleteIt really is miserable at the moment. We just missed snow, which fell in some outer London districts and may well hit us later. The temperature is still falling and expected to reach zero tomorrow night.
We've had an uncommon week-long cold spell as well, but temperatures will be swinging wildly up starting next weekend. Such swings are far from uncommon:at least here if March is warm then May will be cool. We even have a folk saying for it: when marzo mayea, mayo marcea" (When march behaves like may, may will behave like march").
DeletePosting the comment in chrome finally succeeded.
Tinúviel
The saying here is 'March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.' Still waiting to hear the bleat.
DeleteChrome/Chromium is increasingly flaky. I have the cast iron Yandex browser and am considering switching to it permanently.