The Robin in the Flower Walk is certainly my old friend returning after bringing up offspring. It has the same territory and the same habit of mercilessly bullying all the other small birds within reach. Two other Robins could he heard and they were all ticking crossly at one another. This may have been its former mate -- the couple will have split up by now -- and the young one I sometimes see here.
This Great Tit was well out of its way. It's one of the pair that follow me around the Rose Garden, seen here on a climbing rose in the pergola.
As well as the family of Greenfinches near Peter Pan there is another at the southwest corner of the bridge. A young one perched at the top of a holly tree.
A Starling at the Lido restaurant shone in the sunlight as it waited for a chance to grab some scraps off a table.
The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was in her usual place in the small lime tree.
A constant whining noise from the middle of the Serpentine turned out to be a young Lesser Black-Backed Gull begging at an adult, which took no notice.
The adult isn't Pigeon Eater, who is a typical medium grey bird of the western European and British subspecies Larus fuscus graellsii. It's darker than most of the Lesser Black-Backs on the lake -- but not as dark as this one on the posts at Peter Pan, which is nearly black and may be of the northern race L. f. fuscus. Things are complicated by the existence of an intermediate race, L. f. intermedius, which can also be very dark.
The female Great Crested Grebe at the island arrived with a decent-sized perch ...
... and one of the chicks led the rush to grab it.
You often see grebe parents dodging the leading chick and feeding one of the less pushy ones so that they all get their share.
A very short video: usually a Cormorant would scare a Great Crested Grebe away, but when the grebe has chicks to defend it doesn't hesitate to make an underwater charge.
The grebes are no longer taking any interest in their nest, and today it was occupied by a couple of female Mallards.
Two Mute Swans were testing their newly regrown flight feathers.
The Black Swan looked very fine in the sunshine.
One of the young foxes in the Dell was lurking in a patch of long grass.
It emerged with a broken dog lead and trotted off to play with it.
There has been no further sign of the Lesser Emperor dragonflies at the Vista, but a male was hunting under the bridge.
There may also have been one under the Italian Garden, but I didn't get a proper look at it. Later: David Element confirms several here.
A very tattered old Red Admiral butterfly perched on a hemp agrimony flower.
The Angry Robin sounds like the perfect title for an Oscar Wilde tale.
ReplyDeleteAmazing video of the charging Grebe. It goes at it like a mixture of a submarine and a battering ram.
Tinúviel
I don't suppose it actually rams the Cormorant head on. It probably administers a hefty peck with its sharp beak as it speeds past. But that's a serious shock coving out of nowhere.
DeleteNice to see the Lesser Emperor again.
ReplyDeleteThere have been very few accepted records of the nominate form of Lesser Black-back in the UK & though your bird here is pretty dark it isn't dark enough. Fuscus are quite elegant birds, sleek & longer winged than here. Maybe it is sub-species intermedius?
Intermedius seems likely enough. It was remarkably dark by local standards, and perhaps the sunlit picture lightens it too much. It was also uncommonly big and beefy.
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