A pair of Goldcrests bounced around an an evergreen oak in the Rose Garden.
A Coal Tit at the bridge came down to pick a pine nut off the ground. This one remains very shy and will probably never dare to come to your hand.
A Long-Tailed Tit perched in hawthorn blossom.
A Wren appeared behind the Big Bird statue ...
... and so did another on the east side of the Long Water.
The Robins at Mount Gate were collecting insects for their chicks.
The male Blackbird from the Dell was gathering worms.
The Song Thrush at Peter Pan perched in a holly tree.
There were Swallows over the Long Water ...
... and Sand Martins over the Serpentine, also some House Martins but I didn't get a usable picture of one.
A female Pied Wagtail ran around on the Lido jetty looking for insects in the grooves in the rubber non-slip matting.
Pigeon Eater was in his usual place by the Dell restaurant looking mean, moody and magnificent.
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A view of both the Grey Heron nests at the east end of the island.
The young herons are growing with amazing speed on their diet of regurgitated fish.
The seven Coot chicks in the Italian Garden are now too big to all fit on the remains of last year's nest which they use as a day platform.
The Mute Swans nesting at the boathouse now have four eggs. The female probably hasn't finished laying, so she hasn't settled down to incubate them.
The Mallard with her five ducklings, now half grown, crossed the lake.
Red campion and bluebells in the woodland at the foot of Buck Hill.
Today I saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a Green Woodpecker, three Whitethroats and one Willow Warbler in the park on top of the House Martins, Swifts and Chiffchaffs. There was also a Mistle Thrush by the Speke Monument. Unfortunately, no Peregrines today.
ReplyDeleteTheodore
One bird was off and on HPB Saturday. Pretty sure they are the same birds as the ones you're seeing at the other place now.
DeleteThe Hyde Park female has a red ring on her right leg. The clincher would be to see that in the Cromwell Road.
DeleteExcellent, particularly the Whitethroats -- haven't seen one this year myself. Where were they?
ReplyDeleteBy the Queen Caroline Temple in Kensington Gardens. So were the Willow Warblers
DeleteThanks. Will go and look.
DeleteDo any of the Long-Tailed Tits ever come to you for your pine nuts?
ReplyDeleteSuzanne.
No, but Mark Williams has one that comes to his hand in St James's Park.
ReplyDeleteI'd give my left kidney see that. Can he be prevailed on to have someone take that picture?
DeleteCoal Tits are so much shier. It's weird considering how cheeky their bigger cousins are.
Aren't those eggs going to get cold? She arranges and rearranges the nest, but doesn't sit on them.
Tinúviel
That picture has already been on the blog, last spring. It's here.
DeleteEggs stay viable for several days without being incubated. When the bird has finished laying she sits on all of them, and it's only then that they warm up and start developing. In this way they all hatch more or less at once.
Amazing. Nine years' wait was worth it, every last minute of it. His hand was so steady in the video. I would be trembling like a leaf!
DeleteTinúviel
Long practice in bird feeding. His skill is unique.
Delete