A hot sunny day kept most of the small birds in cover, but there was a view of a young Robin in the Flower Walk ...
... and a Wren in the trees near Peter Pan.
A family of Greenfinches was zooming around in a holly tree. The best I could manage through the leaves is this very bad shot, but at least it includes three of them.
Most of the Jackdaws have moved to an area between the Physical Energy statue and the leaf yard.
One of the young Peregrines was on the barracks tower.
The elderberries are disappearing long before they are ripe, thanks to the ravenous Wood Pigeons.
As usual, one young Grey Heron was down from the nest and exploring the island ...
... while the other was still in the nest and showing no sign of leaving. This is unusual, as siblings usually do things together for some time after leaving the nest.
The three Great Crested Grebe chicks are now being carried around by their parents, though when I was there only one little stripy head was looking out from its father's back. It was the mother's turn to fish for them, but when she passed she hadn't got anything yet.
There's no shortage of very young carp up to an inch and a half long. There are shoals of them all the way up both shores of the Serpentine.
The Coots' new nest in the Italian Garden is growing daily. The mess of floating milk bottles still hasn't been cleared up.
The Tufted Duck seen here at the Vista has managed to keep eight of her original nine ducklings since she was first seen on 19 July. They survive the hungry gulls better than Mallard ducklings, as they can dive instantly from the moment they are hatched.
There was also a Mallard with a single duckling. Thanks to Duncan Campbell for this picture.
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Two more pictures from Duncan. This is an Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp, Cercis rybyensis, seen next to a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee. It has the ghoulish habit of hunting small bees, paralysing them with a sting, and carrying them to its nest where the larvae feed on them while they are still alive.
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He also sent this good view of a Hornet Hoverfly. It really isn't much like a hornet and surely birds can spot the difference, but even a faint resemblance to a dangerous insect is better than none in the battle to avoid being eaten.
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Two Burnet Moths clung to a grass seed head near the Vista.
A Speckled Wood butterfly sunned itself on the Flower Walk railings.
Nervous Woodpigeons now making a wonderful clatter as they navigate a large laurel whose berries I have tried to leave for them when pruning.
ReplyDeleteThis year I have had a great crop of raspberries from one of our family's stands which we had long tired of trying to protect with nets, such is the scarcity of Blackbirds attributed to Usutu virus. Though a few weeks ago I intercepted a bizarre raiding party of a male Blackbird and a Song Thrush, happily standing barely an inch apart.
I think some of the smaller bee-mimics must fool predators as they seem to have no fear of being touched, quite unlike the Volucella. Jim, north London.
Do you mean a bay, Laurus nobilis, or a cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus? The stones of the berries of the latter are quite poisonous, though Wood Pigeons may be resistant.
DeleteRecently I reread Peter Forbes, Dazzled and Deceived. He deals mainly with mimicry in butterflies but is quite clear that birds can spot inexact mimics yet these are still protected to some extent.
Cherry Laurel. It would make no sense for a plant to bear fruit that killed all oncoming vectors, although it could suit them to harm one group of them but not another, as is often the case.
DeleteI may have mentioned also observing Blue Tits drinking nectar from the flowers of this plant, though whether they pollinate any is another matter. Jim
There would be a point in a poisonous plant having non-toxic nectar. We recently saw insects browsing on Hemlock Water Dropwort.
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