Not much may be happening in November but at least you get pretty coloured backgrounds. A Magpie perched in the red leaves of a pin oak by the leaf yard ...
... and a Jackdaw stood on a post by the same tree.
A Wren emerged from the bushes.
A Blue Tit in the Flower Walk perched on a peculiar object. I thought at the time that it was a dead buddleia flower, but it seems to have shoots coming out of it. PlantNet can't identify it.
The young Grey Wagtail was hunting midges in the Dell.
Four Pied Wagtails hunted on the grass beside the Round Pond. A female stared curiously at the camera.
It was quite windy and the female Little Owl was staying in her usual place in the dead tree.
It's always practically the same picture, and it's always the female in this place. When the male is in the hole, either he's right inside and invisible or standing on the front edge. This step is reserved for her.
The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull, in his favourite place on the Dell restaurant roof, squawked indignantly as a cheeky young Herring Gull buzzed him.
%20buzzed%20by%20young%20herring%20gull%202023%201a.jpg)
Another young Herring Gull walked along the line of plastic buoys at the Lido trying to keep its balance. As soon as it stopped the buoy tipped up and it had to fly off. They know this will happen. It's a game.
This Black-Headed Gull, EX63684, has been visiting the park since at least 2019. We used to have EX63683 as well, but it hasn't been seen for several years.
EZ73323 had managed to oust the Czech gull from its favourite place on the No Swimming sign.
A light-coloured young Cormorant, brown rather than black and with a very pale front, stood on the fallen poplar at the Vista.
A group of Shovellers passed ...
... and Mallard drakes clustered around a female.
A pair of Gadwalls fed in the Italian Garden.
I wasn't sure whether two young Great Crested Grebes from the family at the bridge had survived the dangerous transition to independence or only one. It's two, and here they are fishing together by a reed bed farther up the Long Water.
The wasps that cluster on the nectar-rich fatsia flowers seem to be gone, but a hardy Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was still active.
Hi Ralph, what an unusual cormorant.is it's light colour PURELY because of it's youth, or is there another reason possibly ?, regards, Stephen..
ReplyDeleteYoung Cormorants always have light-coloured fronts, but this one was unusually light all over and I think it will always be brown.
DeleteOk, thanks...
ReplyDeleteThe first picture is so amazingly vivid I nearly gasped. I have said this often, but so many of your pictures look like Japanese paintings.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed by the impudence of the young Herring Gull, buzzing the most senior gull in both standing and stature like that!
Very, very glad to see it's two young Grebes and not just one.
I didn't do anything to that Magpie picture except crop it. Those brilliant red American oaks really do looks like that. There are quite a few of them, or several species, in Kensington Gardens, planted for their autumn colour of course.
DeleteYoung gulls are bumptious. The same with herons.
I was also overjoyed to see the two young grebes. There are always losses when the chicks become independent, nature's way of ensuring that the survivors are competent. Two out of three is against the odds.
Hooray for the two young grebes!
ReplyDelete