An unexpected sight at Mount Gate: a pair of Robins peacefully together on the railings. Yes, they were both drawn by the prospect of a pine nut, but even so in December they'd usually have been fighting if they'd got so close.
Also here, the usual Blue Tit ...
... and a pair of Coal Tits. Both of these sometimes come to my hand, but today one of them was in a mood and stayed in a treetop.
An interesting picture from St James's Park taken by Joan Chatterley: a melanistic Great Tit. I've seen several male Great Tits here with more extensive black patches than usual, but never one as black as this.
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The Robin by the Henry Moore sculpture came out for several pine nuts. It has a mate, which was singing on the other side of the path, but this pair were staying well apart.
The behaviour of the first pair of Robins is unseasonal, but the plants have also got confused. At the back of the Albert Memorial there is a camellia in bloom ...
... and at Mount Gate a viburnum. It's not as if the weather has been unusually mild for the time of year, and indeed it's quite cold at the moment.
Two Jays followed me from the Albert Memorial to the bridge, alternately demanding peanuts.
A Grey Heron fishing in a reed bed on the Long Water made several lunges, but all it came up with was a stick.
The heron in the nest at the east end of the island was sitting the other way round and slightly more visible than yesterday.
Two herons stood on the boats below with a mob of Black-Headed Gulls.
The Lesser Black-Backed Gull which I filmed two days ago at the Triangle eating a crayfish claw was back in the same place. This time it had the head.
There are still quite a few Cormorants. Eight were standing on the fallen Lombardy poplar near the Vista.
On the far side of the Vista the killer Mute Swan, his mate and five teenagers were resting on the gravel strip. But the teenager on the far right isn't his. You can just see that it has no ring.
The remaining teenager had gone under the bridge on to the Serpentine.
A family of Greylags passed down the lake in single file. It saves energy to slipstream the goose in front, just as they fly in a V formation which is the most economical one in the air.
Ahmet Amerikali got a good picture of a Little Grebe in Southwark Park.
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I wonder whether our Little Grebe is still on the Long Water. It's such a surreptitious little bird that it's only glimpsed occasionally.
We saw the very friendly pair of Robins today again. They were uncommonly nonchalant about each other's close presence. I wonder if they are just arrived or passing through and it's not worth their while to pick up a fight for territory,
ReplyDeleteTo think that even Coal Tits should have moods. One would tend to associate sulky behaviour with that epitome of churliness, swans.
So the strange early bloom phenomenon continues apace, for both birds and plants. It's almost as if they were triggering one another.
Tinúviel
Perhaps for the Robins it's like the Christmas truce in the trenches, and in a few days they'll be after each other hammer and tongs.
DeleteOh yes, even the tiniest birds have moods. I see this constantly.
Every English winter has its mild and chilly periods, but something about their order this year seems to have confused Nature. Luckily plants that blossom prematurely seem to be able to recover for a second try at a more appropriate time.
Lovely seeing the two Robins together- not a common sight.
ReplyDeleteHave to say your Azalea is actually a Camellia!
I'll take this opportunity to wish you a peaceful Xmas & thanks for your daily efforts in showing us the varied wildlife of the parks.
Yes, I always get those flowering shrubs wrong. Thank you. Will change the text.
DeleteTninúviel also has a pair of Robins that have agreed to a temporary ceasefire.
Wishing you a very happy Christmas and a successful new year. I shall be staggering on trying to keep a daily report going as I lurch around full of pudding. The activity wards off seasonal collapse, always a problem at these times. And at least we are over the solstice, though as my gloomy grandmother used to say, as the days lengthen, so the cold strengthens.
Look forward to seeing it Ralph. I'll certainly be having a walk Christmas morning for a couple of hours at dawn down the road in our local country park. Enjoy your pudding!
ReplyDelete