Another sunny morning, and the Little Owl at the Round Pond was out on a completely bare branch, although there were Jackdaws and Magpies in the lower part of the horse chestnut tree.
A Green Woodpecker appeared on a tree by the path along the north side of Kensington Gardens. They are very mobile and you never know where they will turn up.
In the holly hedge bordering the park the Wood Pigeons have eaten most of the berries, but there are still a few to be gleaned.
A pair of Chaffinches perched in a bush in the Dell.
The female Chaffinch at the southwest corner of the bridge was there again today.
Ahmet Amerikali photographed a Long-Tailed Tit here.
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More Common Gulls have arrived on the Round Pond. They tend to straggle in one by one until there are about 50 in midwinter. Their pretty dark eyes give them a deceptively gentle look.
The odd-coloured Lesser Black-Backed Gull with dark eyes -- not normal for this species -- was at the Dell restaurant, in the absence of Pigeon Eater and also of the odd-coloured gull with pale eyes. I think these two are brothers as they are both unusually large, but you don't see them together.
A Cormorant sunned its wings at the island.
A young Moorhen wandered along the edge of the Serpentine looking for insects among the fallen leaves. A Moorhen's life is largely spent foraging for tiny scraps.
Another confronted a pair of Egyptian Geese.
The Egyptians at the Henry Moore sculpture now seem to be in undisputed possession of the lawn, after many noisy confrontations with a rival pair.
Three Red-Crested Pochard drakes have arrived on the Long Water ...
... but there are still no Mandarins, so here is a remarkable picture taken by Virginia a while ago of a female towering over her cowed-looking mate. They are actually the same size, so it's a matter of attitude.
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Sadly, the report of a Knot at the Lido, which would have been a new species in the park, was mistaken. There was a Knot on the 9th, but it was in Regent's Park at the zoo. So the all-time total for the park remains at 197 species.
Yesterday's range of insects seen on the Mexican orange in the Rose Garden didn't include a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, normally the most abundant species this late in the year. But there was one today.
Looking up the avenue to the south front of Kensington Palace, an added wing designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and grander in style than the rest of this rather plain brick building.
Come to think of it, I have never seen a Moorhen with anything reasonably large in its mouth!
ReplyDeleteI wonder where Pigeon Eater goes to when not at his domain and what he gets up to.
I was meaning to ask, what happened to the large collection of Liam Payne’s memorabilia at the Peter Pan statue.. I visited the past last week and all was gone. Do park management dispose of it all.. as there was a lot more there than just flowers.
I have a question please. Next year I am going to spend a few days of my annual leave visiting the park (not in one block but separate days). When would be the best time to do this? I am more interested in insects than birds.
ReplyDeleteFor insects, I'd say the best time was mid to late summer. For birds it's quite different, spring before the leaves come out on the trees.
DeleteThank you for that - sort of beginning March for birds then?
DeleteMarch and much of April. The trees aren't fully leaved till near the end of the month, though years vary.
DeleteI read a novel called Hawksmoor long ago, about Nicholas Dyer's occultist practices and how he built 8 churches in London with the aid of satanic sacrifices. At the time I thought it was fictional, but now I wonder.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if grown up gulls would recognize and tolerate a sibling. Raptors certainly don't.
Tinúviel
Hawksmoor is a lurid fantasy, of course. But Hawksmoor's churches are all rather odd in design.
DeleteI think Pigeon Eater and his mate tolerate their children into the second year, but have not observed anything more than that. Gulls are among the more intelligent birds, but that doesn't mean that they have a social structure like that of, say, geese.