Two female Wigeon, only occasional visitors to the park, have flown on to the Round Pond.
The Little Owl is still coming out in the horse chestnut tree, though there are now few leaves to give her any cover.
A Wren climbed a tree beside the Henry Moore sculpture ...
... with a Robin singing on a branch.
A Robin in the North Flower Walk was at a little hole in a tree that fills with rainwater and gives it a place to drink.
The Chaffinch pair in the Rose Garden were waiting in a hawthorn tree.
Looking up the lake you could see a crowd of Cormorants on the fallen Lombardy poplar. with more flying in.
On the far side of the water a young Grey Heron was surprised by a Cormorant popping up next to it.
Some idiot let his dog jump into the water, where the violent boss Mute Swan's family had come to beg food from the visitors. The young ones are just as aggressive as their father, and soon put it to rout. The adult swan here is their mother, also a tough customer.
Pigeon Eater landed on the roof of the Dell restaurant and made sure everyone knew he was there. There was no sign of his rival.
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The Lesser Black-Backed Gull at the Lido was still balancing on the buoy, beside two Common Gulls and two Black-Headed Gulls.
The dominant Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage has grown considerably more of its dark head feathers since I last photographed it on the 8th.
I went back to the Round Pond just before sunset to see if the Little Owl had got into an interesting place, but as I arrived she was displaced by a pair of Magpies and retired to her hole. The Magpies preened to congratulate themselves.
Starlings flew into a tree to roost.
Two Coots fought in the sunset, watched by their mates.
Presumably the LBB's buoy is more stable being on a bend in the rope and given its point of contact with the next buoy, helped by leverage from the gull's weight. Jim
ReplyDeleteAnd the corners are anchored to the bottom. Anyway, the gull has found it suitable and stays there.
DeleteSadly dog owners in Hyde Park are more responsible than many other places - I sometimes go to Keston Common (nowhere near as good as hyde park but close to me) and so many dog owners let their dogs in the pond. I don't tell them off.
ReplyDeleteDog owners' conduct has deteriorated everywhere. Up to and right through WWII the grass in the park was kept short by a flock of sheep. Imagine that now.
ReplyDeleteIf even the mother is so aggressive, I shudder to think what the cygnets are going to turn out like, aggression-like. But in cases such as this all those murderous instincts are for the good.
ReplyDeleteAristotle remarked on the enmity of Little Owls and corvids. For centuries people thought it was a folktale.
Tinúviel