A horse chestnut tree near the Henry Moore sculpture is badly hit by the leaf miner moth and its leaves are chewed and brown. The caterpillars on the leaves attract birds, including a young Chiffchaff ...
... a Blue Tit, which at the time seemed more interested in pecking a leaf bud ...
... and a Long-Tailed Tit.
Another Long-Tailed Tit perched on a twig for a surprisingly long time, and uttered the little purring chirp that they make when perched.
The young Robin at the bridge was slightly annoyed by having to pose for its photograph instead of being fed immediately, but put up with it.
A Carrion Crow on the lawn by the Dell had won a bit of bread from a picnicker.
A Jackdaw came out at the back of the Lido to claim a peanut.
There was a gusty wind at the Round Pond and the female Little Owl was on her usual sheltered branch, which also gives her a good view of the area.
The Grey Heron chicks on the island were visible, with a parent guarding them.
Both the previous two young herons were also in their nest.
The flow of water from the land drain at the Vista stirs up the silt, and with it a lot of little aquatic creatures. The ducks come here to eat these. But fish come for the same reason, and that's why the heron was also hanging around.
The Great Crested Grebe family at the far side of the Vista could be seen from a distance. The four chicks can still just fit on to their father's back at the same time. One of them was swallowing a small fish their mother had brought.
The family on the Serpentine were near the Vista. I didn't think the chick was going to be able to swallow this perch, but it just managed with a considerable effort. It's amazing what they can get down.
A female from another pair, which haven't nested, cruised through the group of Red-Crested Pochard drakes at the island.
There are still some Emperor dragonflies at the Italian Garden, but they are getting tattered and probably won't be around for much longer.
A lot of Common Carder bees have emerged in the Rose Garden, very late after an initial scarcity. A worker gathered pollen from a phlomis flower ...
... and a male browsed on a head of verbena.
Wow. That's almost as big as the chick's head and neck. Way to go, little thing.
ReplyDeleteThe poor Grebe father looks to me like one of those overloaded trains from India there used to be pictures of!
I'm sure grebe parents are so proud of having four chicks that they delight in being overloaded. In Miles Coverdale's beautiful translation of Psalm 127, 'Like as the arrows in the hand of the giant : even so are the young children. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : they shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.'
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