The three Starling chicks in the plane tree got a visit from a parent with a larva. The chick carelessly dropped it.
A female Chaffinch unexpectedly appeared in the small willow on the edge of the Serpentine below the Triangle car park. She was holding a midge. There must be a nest in the shrubbery on the other side of the path.
The Great Tits nesting in the pump were busily visiting with food for the six chicks.
The chicks are growing well.
The male Little Owl at the Round Pond was in a horse chestnut tree.
Virginia photographed a pair of Great Crested Grebes mating on the gravel strip in the Round Pond. They have been trying in vain to build a nest, but there's nowhere to put it. Let's hope they soon realise their error and move to the Long Water.
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A pair of grebes are nesting against the reed bed by the Serpentine outflow. This isn't a much better place, but at least it's feasible.
The pair of Coots struggling to build a nest in about 5ft (1.5m) of water offshore from the outflow have managed to get it above the surface. There's not much to see but the substructure of waterlogged branches is huge.
A wide-angle view from the dam shows the nest in the distance.
The Coot nest in slightly shallower water by the Dell restaurant balcony has been tastefully decorated with coffee cup lids.
The two females in the nest at the bridge were quarrelling as usual. There are still only three chicks. Was all that laying of 19 eggs in vain?
The parents of the eleven Egyptian goslings on the Serpentine carelessly parked them in the middle of the path.
I don't know how they've managed to keep them all alive.
Duncan Campbell photographed the ten goslings on the Round Pond looking up at a passing 747 on its way to Heathrow.
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The Mallards on the Serpentine still have four ducklings.
A Green-Veined White butterfly perched on a flower near Victoria Gate.
A Honeybee in the Rose Garden clung to an allium flower with its front feet.
I wonder what they thought that 747 was. Were they alerted by the shadow, or by the sound?
ReplyDeleteThat pair of Coot have epic stamina and no less epic stamina, to be able to built a nest right in the middle of nowhere year after year.
Tinúviel
Goslings and ducklings do watch the sky, and no wonder as a predator may swoop down. There is a famous experiment in which a brood of ducklings was put in a room with a wire across the ceiling along which an object could be pulled. The object was a T-shaped bit of cardboard painted black. When it was moved over with the tail of the T going first, so that it had the shape of a flying duck, it caused no alarm. But when it was moved with the tail trailing, so it had the outline of a hawk, panic ensued.
DeleteI feel sorry for those Coots. Heroic effort, and then a windy day washes the nest away.
Isn't that a metaphor for the human condition, though. Who would have thought - Coots as objects of philosophy.
DeleteTinúviel
It's lucky for the Coots that they don't do much thinking.
DeleteRalph, I spotted a pair of common sandpipers on the dominant swans nesting site around 11am today. Edward
ReplyDeleteMany thanks. I found them a bit later farther down the lake and got a couple of pictures.
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