On a warm sunny Saturday the park is crowded and small birds tend to lurk out of sight, but the Great Tits in the Flower Walk are always eager to come out for a pine nut.
A Long-Tailed Tit preened on a dead branch in the Dell.
On the rocks below I thought I was photographing two young Blackbirds but there's a third one, quite hard to see.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker perched on a treetop in the leaf yard.
Mark Williams photographed a Robin in St James's Park perched on his hand, one of two he regularly feeds. The Robins I know in the park here won't let you point a camera at them at point blank range.
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One of the young Peregrines was on the barracks tower.
The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was on a shady horse chestnut branch.
Black-Headed Gulls perched on the remains of the raft in the Long Water, accompanied by a Gadwall and a Pochard.
The stay-at-home young Grey Heron flapped and clattered but made no effort to leave the nest.
An adult sunbathed on the shore.
A Cormorant washed furiously and jumped on to a wire basket to dry.
One of the three Great Crested Grebe chicks crossed the lake to the Lido with its mother.
The indomitable Coots nesting below the bridge were back on the nest preening each other affectionately.
Teenage Greylag Geese having a wash got carried away with enthusiasm and started rushing around and diving.
The Black Swan saw someone holding a bag that might have contained food, and came steaming over.
If you stand in the middle of the football fields where the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 used to be, looking west you can see the spire of the Albert Memorial. Looking east to the City you can see the Shard.
Lovely shot of the black swan: I can't help thinking they look a bit intimidating when you see them like that. We have a favourite black Swan called Auntie Jane at St James's: I used to feed her by hand, but quickly found out that she strikes like a black mamba when she sees something edible. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou really don't want to be bitten by a swan. Powerful jaws and a serrated inside to the bill are lacerating.
DeleteThat's the tallest skyscraper in the UK, right? It must have been a very hot day, given that everybody is in the shade.
ReplyDelete"Coot" and "affectionate" look wrong together, but even they have their little hearts, I suppose.
I had to enlarge the picture to find the third Blackbird, and even then it wasn't immediately obvious. Good camouflage.
Tinúviel
Yes, it is the tallest building in Britain until someone puts up an even greater monstrosity. There seems to be a competition to build towers in the weirdest shape, greatly adding ugliness to a skyline ugly enough.
DeleteIt really is quite difficult finding the third Blackbird, but it seemed a shame to give the game away when the bird was lurking so effectively.
Great shots and a forthright architectural review...which I kind of agree with, although I have come to quite like the Shard (even though in my heart I know it is horrible)
ReplyDeleteMost of the new buildings in the City look as if they'd been bent and squeezed by a giant hand. The Shard looks as if the hand had wrenched a chunk off the top, leaving a raw gap.
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