A Chiffchaff sang out of season on top of a holly tree beside the Long Water.
A Robin sang in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Flower Walk.
A Blue Tit perched on another twig.
The west side of the Long Water now has a permanent buffet for the Rose-Ringed Parakeets. Someone even put up a feeder for them, but it got stolen within a day.
The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in her usual lime tree.
The male Peregrine was preening on the barracks. He looked down. They're always very aware of what's happening on the ground ...
... which today included hundreds of enticingly edible Feral Pigeons -- I think the worn grass must have been re-seeded.
Usually the pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull can clear other gulls from his territory, but this Herring Gull refused to go and staged a sit-down strike.
A Grey Heron was fishing under the willow near the bridge ...
... and on the other side of the bridge a Cormorant was drying its wings after a fishing session.
There was also a female Pochard diving busily. Their diet includes small fish and aquatic insects.
The waterspouts on the edge of the Italian Garden are a popular place for Mute Swans. Maybe the disturbed water provides more food, but swans seem to find sprays amusing. They often hang around the powerful jet of the water intake on the Round Pond.
This is the Canada Goose with the speckled head that was rescued last Tuesday when it got a fishing weight stuck in its nostril. It was cruising briskly up the Long Water and seemed well.
Two of the young Moorhens in the Italian Garden fountains explored a patch of Great Willowherb.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in the Rose Garden enjoyed the abundant pollen in a white rose. It got shaken out by a gust of wind but quickly returned.
A Small White butterfly fed on the long-flowering Verbena bonariensis in the Flower Walk.
After the swimming event at the weekend the warning notices about blue-green algae are back. What a tactful organism it must be to disappear whenever it might be inconvenient.
A tactful organism indeed: possibly related to Covid-19, which made influenza disappear for a whole year?
ReplyDeleteIn these wonderful times even micro-organisms do what the government tells them. (But I don't.)
DeleteLovely poses of Chiffchaff & Cormorant.
ReplyDeleteI'm so used to seeing Chiffchaffs everywhere it seemed odd last week, while in Lesvos, to see lots of migrating Willow Warblers every day & only the odd Chiffchaff.
Although Willow Warblers are never numerous in the park there have been more than usual this year.
DeleteInteresting. I've heard quite a few chiffchaffs singing recently, there was one in Crystal Palace park this morning. Maybe they've been confused by the late (and now sadly vanished) hot weather?
ReplyDeleteI've occasionally heard them singing on sunny days in winter. Song Thrushes and Coal Tits are also quite likely to start up on these days.
DeleteI'll keep an ear out for both
ReplyDelete