Mysterious Magpie

A Magpie repeatedly went into the pool at the top of the Dell waterfall to wash its face, and only its face. It kept this up for more than three minutes, so this clip only shows a few visits. The washing behaviour of birds is mysterious, especially of corvids.

A young Herring Gull brought a sweet chestnut ashore and amused itself by throwing it around.

Another was playing with a feather.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond looked out between the fading leaves of the horse chestnut.

At the gate of the Rose Garden a Blue Tit was looking for insects in the lichen on a dead hawthorn.

Both the Great Tits were in the arbutus tree in the shrubbery, and kept coming out for pine nuts.

The male Chaffinch waited on the ground below. He has a mate, but she is much shyer and seldom seen.

Milder weather brought out insects. A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on the arbutus flowers. The tree has flowers and fruit at the same time, because the fruit takes a year to ripoen.

Another was working over a patch of plumbago underneath ...

... and Common Wasps were emerging from a nest in the undergrowth.

A Honeybee was busy on an oxeye daisy in the border.

A Feral Pigeon drank from a small and muddy puddle. Pigeons are the only birds that can drink continuously rather than taking a beakful and throwing their head back to tip it down their throat. I think they can roll their tongue against the inside of their bill to make a kind of drinking straw.

The Robins on the north and south sides of the Flower Walk came out at the same time and nearly collided on my hand. They sometimes squabble in the middle of the path which marks the frontier of their territories. This is the north Robin which has replaced the familiar old tatty one.

A young Grey Heron stood on the head of a nymph in the Italian Garden. The poor girl is badly eroded by 164 years of London air.

The small willow tree on the corner of the Triangle is a popular lookout point for herons.

The number of Shovellers on the Long Water is rising slowly, and there are at least a dozen now.

But fifteen years ago we routinely got 50 each winter, and once there were over 200. Probably the reduction of these, as well as of other minority ducks, is due to the opening of the Wetland Centre and other riverside reserves, which privide a more attractive location. But it's odd that we are getting more and more Common Pochards.