The diet of Wood Pigeons

A Wood Pigeon in the Rose Garden was pecking at one of the bulbs planted in the herbaceous border. Probably it hadn't unearthed this, and it had been dug up by a squirrel. But Wood Pigeons, big and perpetually hungry, will chomp their way through practically anything of vegetable origin. 

The fruit of the cabbage palms in the Dell is also on the menu.

They have eaten most of the ivy berries and are having to work hard to reach the remaining ones. This bird hung upside down in its efforts and finally lost its grip and fell off, as Wood Pigeons often do.

The single white Feral Pigeon in the Rose Garden was looking for food under a tree. It has an easy life, as visitors often feed this conspicuous and beautiful bird.

A Grey Heron stalked about in the reed bed under the Italian Garden, looking for small fish in the water between the reed stems. It seemed to get something small in the first few seconds of this video. Herons' patience and diligence is needed now, as the Cormorants have eaten almost all the medium-sized fish in the lake, as they do every year, and until the season's new fish grow up in several months' time the other fishing birds will have to work hard.

The space under the concrete beams supporting one of the small boathouses is quite a productive spot, as fish lurk in its shadow. As soon as one comes into view the heron grabs it. You often see a heron on both sides of the building, as here.

I didn't see anything of note in the two active heron nests. There are plenty of other herons in the nests on the island, and this one was gathering twigs to repair an existing nest. But so far only two pairs have settled down to breed.

A Great Crested Grebe fished near the Peter Pan waterfront. We don't have many on the lake at the moment, as the ones that came in during the frosty spell have flown away. Again, probably the small numbers are due to this being a thin time for fish.

On the far side of the Vista the six teenage swans were resting on the gravel with their mother -- or at least the mother of five of them, since one youngster from elsewhere has invielgled itself into the family.

Tom was at Wanstead Flats, where he photographed a Tundra Bean Goose, a vagrant from northern Europe. It looks much like a Greylag, but note the dark head and the bill with an orange patch and a dark tip.

Pigeon Eater's mate is only occasionally seen with him. Her feet are not as bright yellow as his, and she has the characteristic short round-topped head of a female gull where his is longer and flatter. Their family life is a mystery, but they certainly have bred and their young have been seen around their home at the Dell restaurant. I think she may have nested on the roof, but this is invisible from the ground.

Every time I go past the Triangle I'm met by three Magpies, an established pair which nest in the trees and what is evidently their offspring from last year.

At Mount Gate the usual pairs of Coal Tits ...

... Blue Tits ...

... and Robins turned up to be fed.

So did the Robin near the Henry Moore sculpture, which I think has a mate but only this one is confident enough to come out.

The Chaffinch pair usually hang around the Flower Walk and follow me for some distance in whatever direction I'm going. This is the female in a tree near the Round Pond.