There will be two blog posts today if all is well, as I am going to Rainham Marshes this afternoon. There was time for a quick walk round the park, but first two interesting videos by Theodore: a Whitethroat singing by the Queen's Temple, coping as well as it can with the shrieks of the pestilential Rose-Ringed Parakeets ...
... and a Green Woodpecker preening on a trunk.
One of the Robins at Mount Gate came out of the bushes and looked up expecting a pine nut. He took several. Who can say no to a Robin?
The Wren in the leaf yard is unconcerned with human beings as long as you don't bring up the camera too quickly.
And a pair of Feral Pigeons canoodling under the Henry Moore sculpture didn't care who was watching.
A Pied Wagtail stared from the jetty at the Lido, a good hunting station as there are insects both in the air and in the grooves of the non-slip matting.
One of the young Grey Herons from this year's early nest on the Serpentine island was under the parapet of the Italian Garden fishing in the reeds.
An adult took up a vantage point on a post to the east of the Lido swimming area.
The Great Crested Grebe pair from the east end of the island dozed comfortably together by the boat hire platform.
The Coots' nest on the post at Peter Pan has been raided by gulls yet again. In all the years I have been coming to the park the nest here has only succeeded once in fledging young, and that was a freak result against all the odds.
The male Mute Swan of the pair that nested on the Serpentine island last year, ring 4FYG, is the third in the pecking order in the park, after the killer swan (4DTH) who is currently busy with his mate nesting on the Long Water, and 4FUK who is also pretty horrible. He felt like bullying the lower ranking swans and started throwing his weight around.
All that's left of the Greylag Geese's breeding attempt this year: one pair with two goslings ...
... and another with one.
The park is not a good place for goslings, and the more savvy Greylags and Canadas are now breeding elsewhere and bringing in their young when they can fly.
Somehow the Mallard at the Lido has managed to save five ducklings from the local menace of gulls, crows and dogs.
Joan Chatterley was at Walthamstow Wetlands where she got this picture of a Common Tern. We never seem to get these in the park any more, probably as a result of the opening of better places for them such as Walthamstow and Barnes.
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Part two, from Rainham, will be up quite late tonight as I have a lot of pictures to go through,
I saw a Sparrowhawk fly into the park this afternoon just as I saw a Peregrine Falcon on the Cromwell Road tower at 16:45, so you were certainly not there.
ReplyDeleteTheodore
The Sparrowhawk was probably one of the resident pair that nest near the Old Police House.
DeleteHello Ralph,
ReplyDeleteyou are definitely right - with so many more swans nesting every year ( this year 6 or more couples within small proximity of each ) and some of the cobs cannot stand goslings and will kill them in a second. The Canada pair already lost theirs- could have been done by crow/gull but I have also seen one last goslings being chased and pecked by a bored aggressive cob.
Sad about the Canadas. I only saw their goslings once, when they had two.
DeleteThe following day they had one and then the day after nothing. Seems such a waste to starve for a month. Last year they managed to raise 3 but that's because we only had 3 swans nesting....
DeleteHi Ralph,
ReplyDeleteI actually just went up to Rainham yesterday for the Woodchat Shrime- can't believe I just missed you by a day! Was it still there when you visited today?
Great blog entry as always and looking forward to your Rainham footage later!
Aiken
Aiken
*Woodchat shrike- and I have no idea why my computer glitched and I put my name twice.
DeleteNo, no one had seen the Woodchat Shrike at any time today. A shame but that's birdwatching.
DeleteThat's unfortunate, sorry about that- hopefully other wildlife was showing well in the good weather today!
DeleteAiken
It was -- see the next post.
DeleteAt this rate I will be convinced that swans can be as detrimental to other birds' chicks as magpies and gulls are. I never thought one of my favourite birds would be mass murderers, but there you go.
ReplyDeleteHope the visit to Rainham marshes was as lovely as we all expected it to be.
Tinúviel
Quite a good day. Pictures and video are now up on the blog. It took ages to sort them out, as I took 583 pictures.
Delete