A Great Tit in the Flower Walk perched in cornel cherry blossom, waiting to be fed. February may be cold and grey but spring is unstoppably creeping in.
More collected in a wintersweet bush in the Flower Walk. A Blue Tit joined them. All the small birds are extra hungry in this dismal weather and I was pursued by a horde from here all the way along the Long Water.
In the Flower Walk a Coal Tit added itself to the local flock. The French Rose, Rosa
gallica, has managed a couple of slightly tatty flowers. This species has hardly any thorns.
The usual male Chaffinch was waiting in a hawthorn.
A Coal Tit picked me up at Mount Gate and followed me to the Albert Memorial.
It was joined by the familiar female Chaffinch.
There are now Jackdaws all along the north shore of the Serpentine. They are certainly breeding up since they returned to the park eleven years ago. Oddly, though, I've never knowingly seen a young one, while young Carrion Crows and Jays are common.
The three Grey Heron chicks could be seen across the lake.
A parent was nearby in the top nest keeping an eye on them, far enough away to avoid being pestered by the boisterous and hungry young. (This, of course, was photographed from the shore side.)
The sitting heron in the middle nest looked over the edge for a moment.
An Egyptian Goose stared curiously at a Herring Gull doing the worm dance on the lawn in the Rose Garden.
Black-Headed Gulls lined up at the Dell restaurant, where several people were feeding the swans in defiance of the bossy notice in the background. The park management are putting up more and more notices and no one pays the least attention to them.
The dominant Black-Headed Gull at the landing stage stood proudly in the middle of the path, with no other gull near his territory.
There aren't many Great Crested Grebes at the moment and I only saw three, all male, these two near the boat hire platform ...
... and one on the Long Water. More will arrive later. It's a relief that they aren't starting to nest, because there aren't enough small fish at the moment to support chicks. Elsewhere they nest in early spring, but most of the pairs here realise that it's not a good idea and wait till summer.
There's usually a small fleet of Tufted Ducks at the island.
A pair of Mallards browsed along the edge of the shrubbery, taking an occasional tasty leaf but mostly looking for worms and larvae.
They were joined by the unattached dark Mallard drake. There are two of these, evidently brothers, and the other one has a mate.
I saw around a dozen Redwings in the wet grassy area south of Physical Energy. There were Starlings and a good number of gulls feeding here too
ReplyDeleteDown by the Lido I watched Pigeon Easter grab a piece of cake which was being fed to a group of pigeons and other birds, and swallow it quickly
Yes, the Redwings seem to have stayed in Kensington Gardens this year. I saw just three on the Parade Ground, twice, a few days ago. Don't know why they've gone off the place.
DeleteTrust Pigeon Eater to get the cake. He's the boss.
Maybe he'll like cake better than pigeon? Less of a hassle raiding humans for cake that trying to run pigeons down.
DeleteI wish you had your own cameramen with you, so that they'd film the horde of Great and Blue Tits coming down on you!
Tinúviel
There are lots of pigeons, but the chance of a bit of cake is rare. That gull will eat just about everything anyway.
DeleteI must try to film the tits landing on my hand. I've done this several times already with moderate success.
Lovely bright shot to open the blog. You're correct in saying a dogwood, though this particular species, Cornus mas, from south-east Europe, is known as Cornelian Cherry, despite the fact it isn't a cherry which are all Prunus species.
ReplyDeleteCertainly brightens up these leaden grey days which seem never ending!
Thank you. Cornus mas was named as a kind of dogwood by PlantNet, I forget what. But the app depends on names supplied by contributors.
DeleteI've just changed PCs so see my comment has come up as Anonymous. Conehead from the last PC life!
DeleteI knew it was you. Signing into Google will re-establish your online identity.
DeleteCheers, Ralph.
Delete