It was a day of sunshine and showers, including two hailstorms. When the first and worse one had died down to a drizzle, the Robin from the yew hedge in the Flower Walk came out for a pine nut ...
... and so did a Coal Tit in the corkscrew hazel.
Another Coal Tit sang as it searched for insects in a tree at the foot of Buck Hill.
A Great Tit perched in viburnum blossom by the Big Bird statue.
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A Blue Tit at Mount Gate was between a forsythia bush and a flowering currant.
Two Long-Tailed Tits preened in the bushes at the Triangle. This is the only time they stay in one place for more than a couple of seconds.
One of the pair of Robins in the Rose Garden was waiting on a bench.
A Wood Pigeon strolled through flowers by the Albert Memorial.
A Carrion Crow perched on a silly installation outside the Serpentine Gallery, a dead tree with large stones balanced on it. The thing has taken a great deal of work, as the tree had to be hollowed out and a steel frame installed to support the stones.
A Magpie in the drizzle had a background of yellow gorse blossom.
A young Herring Gull ate an apple core, and seemed to be enjoying it.
The three young Grey Herons shuffled around as they stood with a parent in the nest at the east end of the island.
A heron had evicted a Coot from a nest opposite Peter Pan and was using it as a fishing platform.
A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine had caught a large perch.
It struggled to swallow the fish till another grebe snatched it and carried it off, but I'm sure that one couldn't swallow it either. The thief can't have been its mate, no grebe would ever do that to its mate. There are two pairs in this part of the lake, constantly at odds.
A pair of Egyptian Geese have brought out seven new goslings on the Serpentine. They were on the shore at the Triangle.
The Gadwall drake and the female Mallard are still together in the Italian Garden.
Always a delight to see the new Egyptian goslings, tempered by the knowledge that they don't generally last too long :( None at St James's yet, but we are hoping for great things soon. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, looks like you have good numbers of little birds at The Gardens. They are thriving at St James's, and I am hoping for the twittering of the new arrivals in May or June. :)
Egyptians rely on the pile-em-high-sell-em-cheap strategy for breeding. Painful to watch, but their numbers are increasing.
DeletePerhaps the thieving Grebe saved the other Grebe's life? I don't see how that large and spiny perch could have gone down easy or at all.
ReplyDeleteI just love the preening Long-Tailed Tits video. What treat to see them stay in one place!
Tinúviel
I've seen grebes fail to swallow oversized perch before, and they do seem able to spit them out in spite of the one-way spikes of the dorsal fins.
DeleteLong-Tailed Tits are endlessly fascinating. I never tire of trying to photograph them.
Unusual to see a Perch without its vertical black stripes on its body. They are normally very distinctive.
ReplyDeleteSean
Can't think of what else it might be.
DeleteI believe it may be a Ruffe.
DeleteSean
Later: The British record weight for a Ruffe is 5¼ oz. So if this is a Ruffe it's a very big one.
DeleteI would say it looks more like a Ruffe to me than a Perch. Either way… it’s Ruffe luck.
ReplyDeleteSean