A sunny day brought the Little Owl at the Round Pond out of her hole, but she was in a skittish mood and went round the back of the branch.
A pair of Feral Pigeons made eyes at each other.
A Robin sang in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Flower Walk, which has already put out catkins.
It had to compete with the noise of traffic, airliners headed for Heathrow, and a helicopter. Urban Robins have to sing much louder than their country cousins.
A Robin in the Rose Garden shrubbery arrived to pick up a pine nut.
It was joined by a Blue Tit ...
... and a Coal Tit which, in the way of Coal Tits, hates being photographed so that you have to be very quick to catch a shot.
A Song Thrush sang beautifully from a treetop against the dull roar of the Wasteland.
The funfair was being circled by a sightseeing aircraft, G-AZOL from the Stapleford Flying Club. This Piper Seneca is 53 years old but still going strong.
Heaven know why anyone wanted to see the Wasteland. We know what it looks like from the air thanks to a picture taken from an airliner by Rocky Atkins shortly after this winter's session opened. As he said, it looks like a rubbish dump.
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Now that most of the Cormorants have left, the Grey Herons at the island have taken over the dead branches of the tree at the west end of the island.
The heron in the nest at this end was alone again.
A heron on the gravel strip in the Long Water was being pestered by Coots which objected to its presence. No wonder they prefer to perch in trees.
When Black-Headed Gulls perch on the buoys at the Lido, Coots cruise up and down the line staring at them, like officers inspecting their troops.
The Coot that has been busy building up its nest at Peter Pan had gone off to fetch another twig, and a Great Crested Grebe gave the site a quick check to see if any fish were lurking in the foundations.
It seems I was wrong about the female Egyptian at the Henry Moore sculpture having started nesting again. Today she was back with her mate.
The Gadwall drake in the Italian Garden still stays by itself.
The evening light lit up the marble statue of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace sculpted by her daughter Princess Louise. She has been given a new crown and a curiously long sceptre, and a whole new right arm, but nothing can be done about her badly eroded face.
We know exactly what the statue looked like when new, as there is a bronze cast of it in Montreal.
Those Coots definitely like to psych out the Black-headeds. And could the female Egyptian have been out for an occasional/daily feed while in fact nesting?
ReplyDeleteIs this the first year of the Giant [ferris] Wheel at the Winter Wonderland? It seems reasonably priced starting at £8 per adult to reach an elevation I estimate to be 2/3 that of the London Eye costing around £30-40, though the rides are only 10 minutes versus 30 minutes on the latter. The Hyde Park Mound was at least free and leisurely at the top, as is the Horizon 22 viewing platform, Bishopsgate. And happy new year to all. Jim
It was early afternoon when I saw the female Egyptian. Normally when nesting they come out for a drink and a brief feed only at sunset, escorted by the male. In this way they get dreadfully thin.
DeleteNo, the Ferris wheel has been at the Wasteland for years now. I can't remember if it was there at the fairly modest outset of this annual plague. I suppose it reaches an elevation with quite a good view, since its base is higher than that of the London Eye which is on the bank of a tidal river. I didn't know about Horizon 22. The Shard charges a crippling amount for its stationary platform, over £30.
I didn't know Princess Louise was such a good sculptor. That level of proficiency takes years of hard study and practice to achieve.
ReplyDeleteI am so used to seeing the Little Owl as a very placid, tranquil bird, it's rare to see her skittish or reluctant to play along.
Tinúviel
It's a competent executed sculpture, though rather inept in its form. I bet the princess had a lot of help in making it. It shows Victoria at the age of 18, already quite a stocky little thing -- she was only just over 4ft 11in (1.5m) tall. In later life her girth exceeded her height.
DeleteThe Little Owl is usually more tolerant than she was today, especially of me, but like all birds she has her moods.