A flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked over a dead hawthorn near the Henry Moore sculpture. Although the tree is dead it's still full of insects in the lichen encrusting its twigs.
A Chiffchaff was going along with the flock, as small warblers often do. It perched in the adjacent hawthorn, which is still alive.
A Chaffinch behind the Albert Memorial waited for me to throw a pine nut up in the air, which it darted out and neatly caught.
A Blue Tit photographed by Mark Williams in St James's Park. The colours in the background remind us that although it's still warm, autumn is here.
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There was a full house of Starlings on the weathervane at the Lido restaurant.
It took two visits to find a Little Owl in the lime tree near the Serpentine Gallery. This is the male of the pair. Probably his mate, whom I photographed here yesterday, was in the tree but out of sight.
The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was lying down in an effort to lull the pigeons into a false sense of security.
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A young Herring Gull dived in the shallow water at the edge of the lake, looking for something edible or interesting.
In the Italian Garden a young Grey Heron made one of the Egyptian Geese nervous by creeping up behind it.
Belinda Davie photographed a Cormorant coming up with a large perch tangled in weed, which had to be shaken off.
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The single Great Crested Grebe chick from the nest at the east end of the island dived busily beside its mother. It actually found an insect larva, a step on the way to feeding itself.
One of the chicks on the Long Water saw its father fishing on the other side of the bridge, and hurried to join it ...
... and was rewarded with a fish.
The other two saw this and went under the bridge too.
Carp of different sizes in the Italian Garden. The large one, two feet long, will be about twelve years old, since the pools were drained in 2010 when the garden was being renovated and have been repopulated accidentally from eggs brought in by birds.
A Comma butterfly drank nectar from Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden. Near the end of this video you can see the curved white mark on the underwing that gives it its name.
That cunning look from Pigeon Eater is just priceless! A master of his craft.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the progression from all Grebe family’s is a joy for the future park visits.
Sean
I wonder if there are any pigeons left who'd fall for his attempt at mimicking an innocent, harmless expression.
ReplyDeleteTinúviel
He's still getting pigeons here in his original hunting ground. Maybe the new arrivals that come in to replace his victims are naive. I'm sure there are also hardy old pigeons here who know all his tricks. You can see them scuttling off to a safe distance when he walks around.
Delete