The ice on the Serpentine is now mostly melted. A Mute Swan flew past the last remaining patch by the outflow.
But a lot remains on the Long Water. The two Mallards and the Gadwall from the Italian Garden were wandering around on it. As usual, the female Mallard was with the Gadwall drake and not with the Mallard.
A Herring Gull rolled a conker around.
When it got bored with that it seemed mainly interested in its own reflection.
The ice doesn't deter the Coot at Peter Pan from endlessly fussing about with its nest.
A flock of Canada Geese grazed in the Diana fountain enclosure, a favourite place as the grass is well maintained and dogs are excluded.
A fully grown Mute Swan has 20,000 feathers, and these teenagers have to spend a lot of time preening.
A Grey Heron was poking around in the upper nest on the island, so it still seems that the chicks are there. But there's no way of telling, as the nest is high in a tree and they won't be visible until they have grown a lot bigger.
A Robin near the Speke obelisk, which I haven't seen before, had the good sense to realise that pine nuts thrown on the ground were worth investigating.
The one near the Henry Moore is a regular customer, but is still only taking one pine nut at a time and then flying back for the next one. Other Robins stand on your hand and collect as many as they can carry.
The usual male Chaffinch in the circular hedge in the Rose Garden ...
... had brought in his mate today.
The Coal Tit ...
... and several Blue Tits ...
... were joined by the male Blackbird who had lived in the shrubbery before it was destroyed -- they are now digging it up literally root and branch with an excavator. Normally very shy, he came out and took several raisins, a sign of how hungry he is with his hunting ground gone.
Wood Pigeons and Feral Pigeons were looking for insects in the patch of bleached daffodils beside the Serpentine Road which was covered by a ramp leading up to the Wasteland. The plants still look very sad, but in previous years they have always made a full recovery and flowered only slightly later than the unaffected ones.
The Albert Memorial shone in the low sunlight.
Pauline Gilbertson was at the Wetland Centre in Barnes and got a good picture of a Bittern doing its trick of looking like a clump of reeds.
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Good news that the poor evicted birds seem to be having enough to eat so far, even if you have to supplement their diet for now.
ReplyDeleteRolling conkers and skating on ice - a Herring Gull's paradise, I'd say.
Tinúviel
I do hope those Blackbirds can find somewhere nearby with leaves and worms and insects. The gardeners have assiduously expelled every trace of nature from the site of the shrubbery, and she will not rush back fast enough to save the birds.
DeleteOne of my favourite sights on the ice, several years ago, was a Herring Gull repeatedly picking up a tennis ball, flying up and dropping it on the ice.
The female Blackbird lived through another day - let's keep the hope. Sometimes miracles happen.
DeleteTinúviel
I hope I can get her taking raisins reliably . Plenty of energy in those.
Delete