There's a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers that visit the Rose Garden, though you only see one occasionally. This is the male, as you can see from the red patch on the back of his head.
The picture was taken looking straight up against the sky on a dull day, but it was possible to get a reasonable result thanks to a fine camera and a certain amount of electronic jiggery-pokery. This can't be done with video, as the camera is much less capable and the editing facilities limited to brightness, contrast and saturation. Nevertheless, it's quite interesting to see the bird leaping about looking for insects on the twigs.
On the lawn below Carrion Crows threw fallen leaves around, looking for worms and insects hiding underneath.
The female Chaffinch is getting bolder, and came out on the path to appeal for a pine nut.
Her mate was equally insistent in a flower bed.
I was putting a pine nut on the railings for an unusually shy Great Tit when the local Robin bombed in and grabbed it, colliding with my hand.
The Little Owl at the Round Pond stayed at the back of her hole.
A Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge of the water.
A Jackdaw celebrated its freedom. No laws, no police, no journalists, no taxes and above all no politicians.
A Herring Gull on the Serpentine ate a dead fish it had found.
A Common Gull perched on a handrail. There are now quite a few of them on the Serpentine.
Another shifted awkwardly on the sharp edge of one of the new plastic signs with which the park is now infested. It soon flew away to find somewhere more comfortable.
The boat hire is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in winter, so the large mob of Cormorants can expand on to the platform ...
... leaving a few posts free for a Grey Heron and a Lesser Black-Backed Gull.
A Moorhen had a wash on the edge of the lake, but retreated to the shore when a Canada Goose barged in.
The Moorhen at the Vista was climbing around in its favourite bush.
A pair of Gadwalls fed under the bushes at the end of the Lido.
A line of Tufted drakes cruised up the lake.
No politicians? Certainly no capable ones that I can see atm. :(
ReplyDeleteSome very nice pics on the blog today: the robin looks lovely and female chaffinches are one of my absolute favourite birds. :)
The female Chaffinch is very slowly gaining confidence. She is a charming creature and deserves all the pine nuts I can chuck at her.
DeleteWe hadn't seen any Moorhen climbing activities in a while. Glad they haven't lost their hobby.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the female chaffinches seem to be more immune than males are to that disease that disfigures their poor little feet.
That Robin gives a new meaning to the word "photobombing".
Tinúviel
The female does have a trace of virus infection on one ankle. But by and large it's true that females are less troubled by it. I think male Chaffinches are more mobile than females -- the male in Kensington Gardens has appeared out of the bushes over a huge area -- so perhaps they're more likely to pick it up from infected neighbours.
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