It was a dim grey day with intermittent drizzle. The Little Owl at the Round Pond had at last moved into a clear view on top of the horse chestnut tree, but the light was too bad for a good picture.
The Peregrine was away from the barracks, allowing a bunch of Carrion Crows to enjoy soaring in the updraught at the top of the tower.
Another crow waited expectantly on an urn in the Italian Garden.
More Robins in the Flower Walk are coming to be fed. I haven't been able to tempt this one before, but it succumbed to the attraction of pine nuts thrown into the flower bed.
The Robin which I think is the mate of the dominant one came is getting confident, and came to my hand three times.
There are now two odd-looking Lesser Black-Backed Gulls on the Serpentine, lacking the normal yellow colour on their bill and feet -- their legs are pinkish grey like those of a Herring Gull. We've already seen one of them here, with most unusual dark eyes. This one has pale eyes, but again lacking yellow.
It was finishing the remains of Pigeon Eater's lunch, shooing off a young Lesser Black-Back.
The young Grey Herons were temporarily back in the nest, to which they return to be fed. The smallest and scruffiest really is a disreputable-looking bird.
A Cormorant and a Shoveller uneasily shared a branch of the fallen poplar in the Long Water.
Two new young Great Crested Grebes have appeared on the Serpentine -- they must already be able to fly and have come in guided by their parents. They practised the adult greeting display, explored the edge, and dived for small fish.
I couldn't see the young grebe in the Dell stream -- I hope it was just resting under a bush. This is its sibling alone at the island.
The two chicks on the Long Water, younger than the ones on the Serpentine, were keeping their parents very busy finding fish for them.
The Coot at Peter Pan had got off the nest, revealing four chicks.
There's only one Moorhen left in the Dell after the foxes have been at work. It was standing forlornly on its favourite rock.
A tiny Garden Spider, presumably a male, climbed up to the tip of a leaf on the edge of the Dell.
In spite of the dismal weather the patch of catmint in the Rose Garden was still thronged with Common Carder bees.
The Cedar of Lebanon at the entrance to the Rose Garden is putting out hundreds of little cones.
Cedars of Lebanon are the handsomest of trees. I have only ever seen them once, in Madrid's Botanic Garden. I still remember them.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that all Heron young fall along a continuum of disreputable-looking-ness, if that's a word. Having a punk rocker-like appearance would do that to anyone.
Tinúviel
Once I was walking past that tree and I was approached by a man who asked me to take a picture of him under it on his phone. He said he was Lebanese and wanted to send it to his family to show that there is a little bit of Lebanon in London. It is a particularly fine and symmetrical cedar and looks just like the one on the Lebanese flag.
DeleteI'm told that in Finnish there is a single agglomerated word for 'looking as if you have spent the night in a wheelbarrow'. So the Finns probably have a word for how that young heron looks.
Beautiful shot of the second robin. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's surprising getting two Robins to come to your hand in the same place. From opposite sides of the path, of course.
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