Saturday 16 March 2024

Dunnocks' courtship display.

A Song Thrush sang in a bush beside the Henry Moore sculpture.


There was a pair of Dunnocks in the alders near the Italian Garden. They were displaying to each other by flapping their wings. Both were doing it, so it wasn't like the female's 'feed me' appeal to her mate that some birds perform during courtship.


A Coal Tit at Mount Gate doesn't need to make an appeal. It knows it will get a pine nut simply by coming into sight.


The Long-Tailed Tits weren't much in evidence on a busy Saturday, but Ahmet Amerikali got a good shot of one of them in the brambles by the bridge where there is a nest.


The Grey Wagtail, in its favourite hunting place behind the barrier at the Triangle, found a larva.


A Pied Wagtail hunted from a moored pedalo at the boat hire platform. The boats were quite busy, but they're used to that.


A Carrion Crow ate a fish it had found, dunking it in a puddle as crows do.


Another emerged dripping wet from washing in the lake.


Both the young Grey Herons were on the shore of the island.


They only came down from the nest four days ago yet already the fishing instinct is starting to kick in. It didn't catch anything, but it's still being fed by its parents for now.


Coots can't resist bullying Moorhens. The Moorhen escaped easily by running up the netting to the top of the fence, something that bigger and clumsier Coots can't do.


Another Coot got bullied in turn by an Egyptian Goose.


There was a good deal of Mute Swan aggression at the east end of the Serpentine. Probably the attacker here is 4FUK, the second male in the pecking order and boss of the Serpentine when the killer swan is away on the Long Water.


Another good picture from Ahmet: a swan splashes down and waterskis to a standstill.


The Black Swan was at the Lido with his girlfriend.


This very small fungus, barely larger than a fingernail, is on a felled tree trunk by the path along the bottom of Buck Hill. It's opposite another trunk covered with Turkey Tail fungus, but this is different and I can't identify it.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Ralph, it would have been nice if the moorhen bullying coot AND the one being bullied by the Egyptian goose we're one and the same !!........regards,Stephen ...

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    1. With over 200 Coots in the park, that would have been stretching coincidence a bit.

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    2. Oh well, one can live in hope, regards Stephen..PS, is there any way I could send you pics of the barn owls?.....

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    3. Yes, indeed, and I would be most interested. My email address is on the blog -- see the top right corner of the web version of the blog (the mobile version is severely simplified). I can publish pictures in landscape format (wider than high) and at least 1600 x 1200 pixels. If the picture is not of high quality -- barn owls can be very difficult -- please send the original unedited picture at full size for me to enhance as I can.

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  2. i wonder if Coots somehow recognize the resemblance between themselves and Moorhens. Given how aggressive they are to one another, it stands to reason that they should extend that aggressive behaviour to birds that resemble them more closely - Moorhens.
    Tinúviel

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    Replies
    1. Quite possibly, especially as Moorhens are smaller and easy to pick on. But Coots do chase other smaller water birds, such as Tufted Ducks. They are afraid of agile, sharp-beaked Great Crested Grebes, though.

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