Monday 22 April 2024

A pair of Cetti's Warblers

The Cetti's Warbler who sings beside the Long Water has a mate. I saw both of them flying through the bushes together and managed to get a picture of one. Not the world's best photograph, but these shy and elusive birds are very hard indeed to catch.


The Cetti on the Serpentine island was singing as well.

Also by the Long Water, a Long-Tailed Tit flew on to a blossoming hawthorn twig.


Two Blackcaps sang at each other from opposite sides of the path.


A Greenfinch wheezed and twittered from a treetop, but refused to turn round.


A Song Thrush was looking nervous ...


... because a Magpie ...


... and a Jay were staring at it from close quarters.


In the Flower Walk, I saw a furious male Blackbird chase a Jay out of the tree where his mate must have been nesting. There was no chance of getting a picture through the branches.

A Pied Wagtail trotted through the slime on the edge of the Serpentine.


No day would be complete without a visit from the Coal Tit at Mount Gate.


The pair of Robins also made an appearance.


I think this Herring Gull at the Triangle had killed the Feral Pigeon it was eating. The usual pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Back was busy with his own pigeon at the far end of the lake, and there were no other big gulls near. I've seen a Lesser Black-Back (not our usual one) killing a pigeon in the same place -- it's full of pigeons because people feed the birds here -- but this was nowhere to be seen. Also the pigeon was still almost entire and hadn't been partly eaten by a previous gull.


A young Grey Heron wandered too close to the female Mute Swan nesting by the Lido restaurant terrace, and her mate sped in to scare it off.


Tufted drakes engage in competitive runs and flights to impress females.


A pair of Gadwalls preened on the Serpentine. I'm very fond of these quiet coloured, well behaved ducks.


What a contrast with the violent behaviour of Mallard drakes. This one at the boathouse killed one of the five Mallard ducklings.



The drakes also drive the females way from their families in attempts to rape them. They seriously impair the survival of their species, and you would have thought that evolution would have bred this behaviour out of them. But it hasn't, any more than it has with murderous Mute Swans.

The Egyptian Geese were also at the boathouse with their seven goslings.


The eldest gosling was grazing at the Lido.



A pretty clump of columbine has come up beside the steps at the northwest corner of the bridge.


13 comments:

  1. Hi Ralph, what an extraordinary blog today !!....especially the pic of the swans/heron....you are right about the aggressive behaviour of the male drakes....nothing quite so unpleasant up here in the wilds of Chester !!..I did get a couple of great pics of a goosander....well done for the cettis warbler pic..regards,Stephen...

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    1. I don't suppose the Mallard drakes in Chester are any less horrible than the ones we have here. Too many male hormones in all.

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  2. Why do they do that. It's just senseless from every point of view. Why evolution hasn't stamped it out is beyond me. I don't understand what benefit they derive from it, as a species.
    Thank God for the elusive Cetti's Warbler posing very prettily for its picture!
    Tinúviel

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    1. I suppose you can say that natural selection is not intelligent and doesn't direct species to the best possible form. It works blindly to the point where a species can survive, and often they survive with crippling faults that might hinder their survival but don't prevent it. The absurd cumbersome tails of male peacocks spring to mind: they can hardly fly but can just manage to flap out of trouble.

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  3. I have seen several attempts of aggressive Mallard chasing behaviour and constantly harassing the females at my local pond. It’s quite uncomfortable at times and you feel for the poor duck. Then it gets worse and multiple drakes join in uncontrollably! She then flies off in a flash and they are just relentless. I don’t think I have seen any other water bird so sexually frustrated like the Mallard.

    Happy Earth day by the way!
    Sean

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  4. Well done getting the Cetti's Warbler shot- not bad at all. They seem to be turning up all over the place this year. Had my first in Kew Gardens last week as well as individuals on my Ten Acre Wood site for the first time, the local country park & Hounslow Heath.

    I wonder how common it is for a Mallard to deliberating kill a chick like this? Certainly their aggressive behaviour to mating is well known.

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    1. I'd read about this behaviour but never seen it happen before.

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  5. Very fine picture of the Cetti's warbler! I find it interesting to read in my old copy of 'Birds of the Wayside and Woodland',T.A.Coward,1920s. 'This bird is occasionally recorded'...Now they're widespread. Same with the Red Kite Coward would have been pleased.....

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    1. Cetti''s Warblers are said to have arrived in 1975, but maybe that refers to their first breeding here. And almost anything can turn up as a vagrant.

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  6. The Cetti's Warbler is awesome! I have never photographed one. I would like to see the columbines too. Today I saw a Sparrowhawk which now means I have seen 4 birds of prey in and around the park!
    Theodore

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    1. The picture of the columbines was taken at the bottom of the stairs at the northwest corner of the bridge.

      Apart from the resident Peregrines (if they are still resident) we have breeding Sparrowhawks, intermittently breeding Hobbies, one female Kestrel that had a mate and bred once, and sometimes Red Kites and Buzzards flying over.

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    2. Of course, I forgot the Hobbies! The first time I saw the Little Owls was the same day that I had seen one in the park. The only one I have not seen in the park is the Red Kite.

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