This young Blackbird in the Rose Garden has often seen me before and wasn't frightened. It hopped around in a flower bed looking for insects and worms. It's beginning to get black male plumage and has a few white feathers, as Blackbirds often do.
Yesterday I fed a Jackdaw on a lawn nearby. Word gets around, and today three turned up.
A flock of Blue Tits flew though the bushes near the Henry Moore sculpture.
One of the young Reed Warblers at the Italian Garden stayed still for a moment.
The male Little Owl could be seen in the usual lime tree. He's in a different place every day, so there's an interesting hunt. I only found him the second time I went round the tree with binoculars.
The male Peregrine was on the tower.
I haven't seen the old Grey Heron at Henry Moore standing up for some time. His old joints must be hurting. But he can stand and even run when he needs to, and can fly perfectly well, and people feed him so it's not a bad old age.
The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull crept up on a pigeon preening on the edge of the lake, but it saw him in time and flew away ...
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... so he had to be content with a bit of bread grabbed from some people who were feeding the swans. Even for this boring morsel his offspring came up and whined at him for a share. The young bird is very big and I think it must be male.
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This Great Crested Grebe chick on the Serpentine had just been fed ...
... so it wasn't desperate to chase its parents. It went off and did a bit of play fishing, looking under the surface and diving. It wouldn't catch anything but this is essential practice for an independent life.
The three at the bridge were with their father ...
...but one of them had carelessly wandered away when their mother arrived with a fish, and missed the chance.
In fact grebes seem to be quite careful to feed their young in turn, and you sometimes see a parent dodging the biggest and pushiest chick to feed one of the others.
The four chicks farther up the Long Water were next to a Pochard preening on a submerged branch. Preening is infectious even across species, so two of the chicks started as well.
A fox in the Dell had been drinking in the stream, and trotted past a waterside clump of willowherb.
I wonder whether the failure of the Moorhens here to breed this year is due to the presence of the fox family. There have been foxes in the Dell for years, but never so many.
A Willow Emerald damselfly took advantage of a brief sunny spell to bask on the railings beside the Long Water.
A Common Carder bee browsed on a buddleia flower.
Hi Ralph,
ReplyDeleteI fed the old heron tonight, he had 3 large pieces of raw chicken, he seemed in good health and no leg issues. I wonder if he sits down because it's his own territory and he spends whole day there. He usually moves to the Serpentine for evening meal ( from me ).
Jenna
Good. But how often do you see another heron sitting down? And this one has only started doing it in the past 18 months or so. Now you only see him standing up when he wants to go somewhere.
DeleteHe definitely must be very old. But is still very perky. He probably knows he needs to conserve his energy for other activities. He was trying to fight off another heron the other day.
ReplyDeleteCertainly nowhere near dying just yet.
Jenna
My apologies for butting in - Could he be taken in by some organization? Herons aren't protected species, I know, but perhaps there may be some sanctuary that may give him shelter if he deteriorates. Thank you so much for all your kindness to him.
DeleteTinúviel
The usual sanctuary could take
ReplyDeletehim in but except for the enhanced feeding he is still able to cope and can be aggressive to selected herons ( even more lower ranking ones ). Today he was waiting all the way at the park entrance gate. Normally he doesn't venture as far but I didn't come for two days so he was more desperate. I don't know what would happen if I didn't come for weeks, but he probably can't fish anymore.
I couldn’t imagine Herons fit the criteria of sanctuary homes, as they are known for independent solitary predators. Is most likely true what Ralph said about some arthritis in the legs and less active from this.
ReplyDeleteI reckon the old bull just likes to wind up his younger rival with a relaxed look on his patch. Either that or he likes to temp him in with a sign of feeble! Either ways cool!
Sean