Friday, 14 June 2024

A bold Wood Mouse

Most of the songbirds have fallen silent for the summer, but the Song Thrush at Peter Pan is still performing well.


There was also a Blackbird singing on the other side of the lake but it wasn't visible.

A young Great Tit called from the railings before flying to my hand. They are all coming now.


One settled down on my hand to eat a pine nut and wouldn't budge when the other birds tried to land -- it even scolded them. It was on my right hand, so I couldn't take a picture. But Mark Williams had exactly the same experience in St James's Park and was using his left hand, so he did get a picture of the stubborn bird, which was wondering if his thumb was edible.


One of the young Long-Tailed Tits from the family near the Italian Garden.


A female Chaffinch followed me from the leaf yard most of the way to the Round Pond. I don't think this was the mate of the familiar male, since when last seen she had healthy feet and this one's are quite badly infected with the papilloma virus.


The condition affects mainly Chaffinches and it seems that they all get it in the end. But other birds are sometimes infected, such as this Jay in the Flower Walk, and I've also seen a Blackbird and a Moorhen with the same condition.


A pair of Magpies chattered at each other in a tree by the Buck Hill shelter.


It rained in the morning but stopped soon after noon, and the male Little Owl at the Round Pond came out of the dead tree where he had been sheltering and perched on a branch.


The young Grey Heron perched in the willow tree next to the bridge.


Below it, a pair of Great Crested Grebes were hanging around. I think it's the pair that nested in the tree last year and they would like to go there again, but at the moment a Coot has the site. It just seems to be squatting and not nesting, so they should be able to evict it.


Repairs have started on the damage to the bridge, beginning with a survey. This end of the bridge hasn't been level for a century or more, as one side has subsided a few inches into the London clay. It's going to be a big job, as some of the large stones in the cornice have been displaced and it will be exceptionally hard work sliding them back -- it's not clear how they are going to do it. Structural repairs will be done this year but the balustrade won't be remade till 2025.


The fallen masonry has been cleared from underneath, but the traffic cone is still there. The Coot nesting here seems very fond of it: anything bright coloured fascinates them.


However, neither of the two Coot nests on this side of the bridge has eggs in it now. Probably they have been raided by Herring Gulls.

Someone had been throwing strawberries on the ground near the Serpentine island. This happens quite often, and apparently the person thinks that they are a special treat for the birds. Actually most birds aren't keen on strawberries. A young Herring Gull chewed one experimentally and spat it out ...


... but a Canada Goose seemed happy enough with another.


The whole length of the south shore of the Serpentine is lined with moulting Canada and Greylag Geese, plus a few Egyptians and Mute Swans.


Most of the Egyptians cluster on the other side near the Dell restaurant. Coots gather farther up the shore near the Triangle.


A tiny Wood Mouse appeared unexpectedly on the edge of the Diana fountain enclosure, and didn't seem alarmed by the people passing by on the path. Some stopped to look at it when they saw I was filming. Wood Mice are fairly common in the park but you hardly ever see them.


A Holly Blue butterfly perched on a leaf in the Rose Garden. There have been a lot of them this year but not many other butterflies. Dragonflies and damselflies are also scarce.

11 comments:

  1. Wood mice means, food for owls, which means, more owls, yay! Yep, I'm pragmatic like that.
    Very glad to see the Song Thrush is still faithfully keeping at it, and every bit as beautifully.
    I wouldn't put it past a Great Tit to have a go at a human thumb, to be honest.
    Tinúviel

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    1. From memory, the result of the London Mammal Society's investigation of the pellets of the Kensington Gardens Tawny Owls showed that almost 70 per cent of the bones were from House Mice and almost 30 per cent from House Mice, a reflection of relative numbers in the park. The remainder was from small young Brown Rats and one piece of a large bird bone, unidentified and evidently from carrion. The survey was done before the Rose-Ringed Parakeets arrived. The Tawnies took quite a few of those, as photographs show.

      Great Tits have to learn. But they do, and display surprising intelligence for such a small creature.

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    2. Have certainly had my little finger pecked more than once by great tits - as for thumbs, a couple of hard bites from short-sighted squirrels, which is more than a little painful. :);

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    3. And young Great Tits sometimes miss their footing when landing and hold on with their beak.

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  2. Hi Ralph, SO 70% house mice and 30% house mice ?.....nevermind, a utterly CHARMING little film of the mouse. ...mark w. Got a great pic of a blue tit on his thumb, quite a tricky photo to take I should think ...I am very much looking forward to your "birds of London" book.which arrives on Saturday....thanks again for that "heads up"...regards, Stephen....

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    1. I've only ever seen a Wood Mouse in the park three times. The owls' diet shows that there must be thousands in the park, so that's a tribute to how well they conceal themselves usually -- but not this crazily bold one.

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  3. Certainly getting quieter. I'm mainly hearing Blackcap & Wren locally with the odd Blackbird, Song Thrush & Dunnock Robins have gone quiet.

    It's been appalling weather for flying insects. After seeing 6 butterfly species on my Sunday patch I've only seen 2 Holly Blues since this week. A few hardy bumblebees & Honey Bees plus a couple of Batman Hoverflies.

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    1. I don't ever remember seeing so few dragonflies and damselflies in particular. Maybe we'll get a bit of summer some time and they'll turn up.

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    2. Certainly hope so Ralph. It's so depressing here with the lack of insects.

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  4. You hear someone going 'aww' when spotting the mouse; it'd more likely be 'arrgh!' if they saw them in the house. Certainly if it was a House Mouse. But they're nice little creatures, too. Only hard to live with.

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    1. Wood Mice are particularly sweet looking. I think you'd have to be fairly phobic to object to one.

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