During a brief lull in the awful Christmas songs blasting out of the Winter Wasteland a Robin in the Rose Garden had time to sing a couple of phrases.
A small party of Great Tits worked their way through a tree.
I missed the usual Chaffinch in the Flower Walk because this was closed off with police tape and there seemed to have been some grisly event. But the observant bird picked me up near the Round Pond and demanded one pine nut after another.
It took two visits to see the Little Owl, and this dull picture was taken as the light was fading.
The gravel strip in the pond is quite clean again, as can be seen in this picture of a Common Gull. The thick coating of droppings on it has not been removed by recent heavy rains so I think it must have been hosed off, a horrid task for the gardeners.
There were 14 teenage cygnets on the pond. You can see six of them in this picture looking down the Vista. Only one was hatched in the park -- the cygnet that was walked up to the pond by its mother to save it from the killer swan on the main lake -- and the others have flown in from somewhere.
This picture was taken in drizzly conditions but you can still see the ugly tower of Centre Point spoiling Bridgeman's carefully planned long view. If I had been the park manager in 1963 I would have planted some trees on the high ground that by now would have grown tall enough to hide it.
A Magpie rummaged in a bin at the Lido restaurant ...
... and one beside the Long Water stared challengingly till I gave it a peanut.
The Grey Wagtail was running around the Serpentine.
The dominant Black-Headed Gull looked over his territory from the Big Bird statue.
A young Grey Heron fishing under the bridge was joined by a slightly younger teenage swan from the dominant family.
A swan in the shallow water by the Serpentine outflow poked around in the dead leaves on the bottom and seemed to be finding something edible. I don't think it was the leaves, and wonder what it was. If it just wanted algae it would go somewhere this isn't covered with leaves.
The Great Crested Grebe pair from the bridge were fishing together under the Italian Garden.
What a contrast between the pale winter feathers of the female and the deep colours of the dark male on the Serpentine.
It occurs to me that all the ultra-dark grebes I've seen are male, so it may be a hormone thing. The breeding plumage of both sexes is normally exactly the same colour.
The Moorhens in the Dell were preening on their favourite rock, since the Mallards that push them off were temporarily away.
The Buck Hill shelter is home to all kinds of activities: martial arts from aikido to Zen archery, meditation, mindfulness, Latin dance classes and birthday parties. Sometimes there are several going on at once.
Hi Ralph, what a lovely little video of the robin chirping. do you use an external mic for that sort of thing?..yes, centre point IS hideous.....I loved the gull sitting on top of "big bird"....1st day with the barn owls on saturday.regards,Stephen.
ReplyDeleteI do have a gun microphone that works with the camera I use for video, but don't generally use it as it's one more thing to carry about and I am heavily loaded already. The microphone built into the RX-10 is quite directional and of good quality. I have put a bit of fur fabric over the holes to reduce wind roar.
DeleteHave fun with the barn owls.
Right got it , thanks.don't think my a230 is as sophisticated as that !!....it is quite an old model..regards,Stephen...
DeleteGosh, in my day we used to call those burpees. Hell on earth.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the swan is eating small snails clinging to the leaves? Or larvae. I don't know what it's called in English, but some trees sort of encapsulate parasitic larvae within some sort of growth on the leaves ("agalla" in Spanish, not to be confused for the word for "gills"). Like this:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agalla
Maybe it found some larvae?
Swans definitely search for water snails clinging to submerged objects, but do snails cling to rotting leaves? The English for agalla in this sense is 'gall' (a word which also has other meanings in English). Oak galls, agallas de roble, also called 'oak apples', are familiar, but there are also galls on leaves of various plants. Plane leaf galls are very small and bright red. I've never seen one. Really I need to fish up some rotting submerged plane leaves and see if I can find anything on them.
DeleteAs long as fishing out rotten leaves doesn't imply you getting wet in such freezing weather, though!
DeleteYes, one should avoid being a martyr to science.
DeleteI have been very interested in gall wasps recently and I can tell you that the oak trees in the park and incredible full of them in the right season, about 3-4 species on one tree!
DeleteTheodore
The oak saplings are absolutely covered with oak apples. I suppose the wasps prefer young tender trees.
ReplyDelete