It was a misty, grey and uneventful day. There is no visible progress with the Grey Herons on the island. One of the parents was fussing in the upper nest, but there is still no sight of a chick ...
... and the heron in the nest at the east end was still doggedly sitting, now a whole month since they started.
The bird is clearly all right, since it was shifting around to get comfortable, but it's hard not to worry about what has happened to the eggs. I have always supposed that birds can hear a live chick in the egg in the later stages of gestation, and will give up if there's no sound, but I may be wrong about this.
One the posts below, a heron ignored a Cormorant striking an attitude.
This young heron by the bridge is as neat as can be, in marked contrast to the one I photographed yesterday, which was exactly the same age but looked as if it had been dragged through a hedge backwards.
A pair of Moorhens mooched around mildly on the edge of the Serpentine.
A Coot washed and preened.
A female Mallard was also preening. Compared to the gaudy drakes, females are very sober in their plumage, but they are beautifully marked.
The usual crew were in the Rose Garden. Since their home was destroyed I'm seeing a lot more of them, in part because they're finding it harder to get food and keener on being fed. The Robin came to my hand for the first time.
The Coal Tit pair remain very timid ...
... but the Blue Tits are now fearless and keep flying out.
The male Chaffinch perched in the lime hedge, waiting to catch a pine nut in midair.
The male Blackbird hauled up a larva in a flower bed. He is now confident about picking up raisins thrown to him.
Gardeners were digging in the shrubbery east of the Lido, and a Robin came out to check the newly turned earth for worms.
At the Italian Garden, a Great Tit in the reeds ...
... disturbed a pair of Wrens, which dashed into the dead iris leaves in one of the planters.
One of the Coal Tits at Mount Gate posed prettily in a dogwood bush.
Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention the UFO. At 9.50 pm the night before last Leessa, one of the bird rescue team, was walking along the south side of the Serpentine when something flew over the lake heading north and zigzagged about over the far bank. It looked exactly like a man in a jet suit and left a trail of smoke but, puzzlingly, was making no noise as you would expect from a jet suit -- and anyway, who has one? She took a picture on her phone.
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Here is an enlarged detail.
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That is very difficult to make out what it could be in the image. Strange. I just searched UFO Hyde Park on Google, and it came up with this photo. https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/1g8helk/multiform_object_over_hyde_park_london/?rdt=35950
ReplyDeleteThat picture is certainly of a bundle of coloured helium balloons. I've often seen these drifting over the park, forming odd shapes as the balloons move around.
DeleteDefinitely aliens!
ReplyDelete'Please don't take me to your leader.'
DeleteSome kind of drone? The low light from the setting sun will sometimes alter proportions of distant objects dramatically. I remember once we were watching a group of bustards with the sun nearly setting and they appeared to be so elongated they looked like ghosts.
DeleteTinúviel
So hard to tell from one distant picture. The smoke trail is particularly puzzling. A hoaxer could put a smoke generator under a drone, of course.
Delete