A sunny day and the autumn colours are at their best.
The Robin in the Rose Garden shrubbery often chooses this branch as a place for a bit of song.
Another sang in the bushes at the edge of the leaf yard.
There was a Song Thrush singing here today and yesterday but, despite going round and round the tree, I couldn't get a sight of it.
A Wren came out on a lime near the bridge.
Several Great Tits arrived in a small oak near the Speke obelisk to ask for pine nuts.
A Jay grabbed a peanut from my hand when I wasn't even trying to feed it.
I couldn't find the Little Owl here, but at the Round Pond the female appeared on a horse chestnut in the afternoon, just as the light was beginning to fade.
A pair of Jackdaws perched together in the same tree.
Another Jackdaw had been bathing at the end of the gravel strip in the Long Water. It took off vertically, looking slightly like a Harrier jump jet.
The surge of visitors to the Winter Wasteland has brought a lot of people feeding the waterfowl. A Black-Headed Gull was having difficulty swallowing a bit of stale bread that it had grabbed.
Carrion Crows have the right idea. They dunk bread in the lake to soften it.
A Cormorant fished around the old Coot nest at the bridge. It couldn't dive deep here, as there is a wire basket just under the surface, but it's a productive spot and it didn't take long to get a carp.
The Black Swan at the Round Pond grazed with a companion. I don't think that's the one he's chosen as a girlfriend, as it looks male.
The solitary Mute Swan in the Italian Garden, who has been there on her own for several months, enjoyed a shower and preen under a fountain. (Incidentally, in case you were worried about her being trapped, she can get out on to the main lake at any time when the killer swan isn't around and fly away, but she prefers to stay.)
This is probably the Buff-Tailed Bumblebee I filmed yesterday, as there was only one on the fatsia bush by the bridge.
Another was working over a clump of flowering tobacco in the Dell.
I'm not sure what the appeal of giant pink bananas with faces and ear muffs is, but it worked on these girls emerging from the Winter Wasteland.
Hi Ralph, your blog never ceases to entertain AND educate !! Pink bananas and harrier jump jet corvids !!...whatever next ??.....regards😃Stephen...
ReplyDeleteI dread to think what grotesque object the Wasteland will produce next.
DeleteWinter wasteland ?!.. ......you would think that the parks management would be able to come up with something a bit more constructive to raise revenue by now!!!...regards, Stephen...
ReplyDeleteThe Wasteland brings huge amounts of money to the management. Impossible for them to stop now, they're addicted to it.
DeleteProsaic creature that I am, my first thought was, where are they going to keep a giant be-eared pink banana. My second one, who's going to do the dusting, because those things pick up a ton of dust. Yep, prosaic, that's me.
ReplyDeleteThat swan looks placid and happy. I always thought swans were rather social creatures.
Perhaps it's not being social that's keeping the swan happy, when you consider how they treat each other.
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