I hadn't realised that there are three chicks, not two, in the upper Grey Herons' nest on the island. Heron chicks have a way of surprising you by appearing apparently out of nowhere.
When you look at the same nest from the other side you're lucky to see anything, but two chicks' heads are visible here.
There isn't much of a view in this video either, but it's enough to show that there is more than one chick in the nest at the east end of the island. These chicks are several weeks younger than the big creatures in the upper nest.
Another heron was fishing from the boat hire platform, waiting for an incautious fish to put its head out under the edge.
A Moorhen at Peter Pan climbed up a chain ...
... and evicted a Black-Headed Gull from its post.
Three Shoveller drakes could be seen at the Vista. I'd only seen one for some time: the other two may have been lurking in the bushes or they may have flown down from the Round Pond.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker climbed a tree beside the leaf yard. This is a place where you often see them.
I only pass this Robin in the leaf yard occasionally, but it always remembers me and comes out to take several pine nuts from my hand.
A Robin in the Rose Garden waited on a bench.
The male Chaffinch now comes out of the Rose Garden and plonks himself down expectantly in the middle of the Serpentine Road.
A Coal Tit was also waiting for service.
There are two kinds of wattle on the edge of the Rose Garden. This Blue Tit is in Wedge-Leaf Wattle, Acacia pravissima, and the Great Tit photographed on Thursday was in Cootamundra Wattle, A. baileyana.
Great Tits and a Coal Tit came out in a dogwood bush in the Flower Walk. The Coal Tits have a difficult time, as they have to wait for a gap in the almost non-stop stream of Great and Blue Tits.
A pair of Great Tits perched on a bramble near the Italian Garden.
A Long-Tailed Tit between the leaf yard and the Round Pond was fluffed up to the max.
It was a surprise to see a Grey Wagtail and a Pied Wagtail hunting side by side in Atherstone Mews, a little cobbled street just off the busy Cromwell Road.
Amazing to see a Grey Wagtail near Cromwell Road. Is there a water source or some turf nearby?
ReplyDeleteThe backgrounds against which the several Tits pose are so beautiful and elegant.
Tinúviel
No, there isn't. However, it has been raining a lot and there are lots of puddles. That Grey Wagtail looks very like the one we've been seeing in the park. It's only a few minutes' flight from there.
DeleteAny word on the whereabouts of the Black Swan lately?
ReplyDeleteSean
Not a sausage.
DeleteI've seen pied and grey wagtail in seaweed on a beach, never in a cobbled street!!
ReplyDeleteYou do sometimes see Pied Wagtails in streets. There was a well known and alarmingly confident one in Queensway in 2012 which used to run around under moving cars. I threw it little bits of cheese, which it took.
Delete