A dull grey misty day was relieved by the brightness of the spring blossom. The inevitable male Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens turned up in a spectacular pink-flowered cherry tree behind the Albert Memorial, surrounded by Japanese tourists photographing each other.
There were also plenty of Great Tits here...
... and in the red-flowered currant ...
... and forsythia at Mount Gate ...
... where the Robins were also expecting to be fed.
A pair of Coal Tits bounced around in a corkscrew hazel bush in the Dell.
Carrion Crows had a vigorous preen in a tree on the Rose Garden.
The familiar Grey Wagtail ...
... and a pair of Pied Wagtails hunted midges from a net at the east end of the Serpentine.
This is what happens when you reseed a bit of threadbare grass: a mob of Feral Pigeons. The gardeners have a tractor-drawn machine that cuts grooves in the ground and drops grass seed into them, but the pigeons still eat a large share of the seed.
The three young Grey Herons in the nest at the east end of the island fly from and to their nest whenever they like, but are still returning to be fed.
Most of the heron nests are reused from previous years, but here is a new one on the island. I don't think it was built from scratch, and it's probably a Magpie nest that has been extended. It looks insufficiently supported and unstable. Heron nests do sometimes collapse as the birds enlarge them and overload the branch they rest on.
A Moorhen and a Coot had a faceoff at the island. As you would expect, the Coot won and the Moorhen skulked away.
The male Mute Swan on the Long Water visited his mate on the nesting island, with a retinue of Tufted Ducks.
The Canada Geese excluded by the swans yesterday were at Peter Pan, looking downcast as they have nowhere to nest.
Jenna tells me that only the female of the pair is the one that nested on the defunct tern raft in past years. Her mate was killed by a fox or dog, and she has paired with another male.
The Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine are down to their last gosling.
A Mallard drake reached down to crop algae in the shallow water at the edge of the lake.
The horse chestnut trees are just beginning to put out flower buds and new leaves.
That flowering cherry tree is spectacular. No wonder Japanese tourists take pictures of one another next to them. I suspect the small birds use them to look their best and be given more pine nuts.
ReplyDeleteTinúviel
The small birds do have to put up with being photographed instead of fed at once. They visibly resent the delay.
DeleteIn Golders Hill Park in the past fortnight also, grass seed on well-trodden soil attracting many unusually blithe Wood Pigeons, initially outnumbering the Feral at it. Wondering also if they sow at weekends to maximise passers-by, not that the birds seemed to mind. Jim
ReplyDeleteThe area here is roped off so that the pigeons can have a congenial dining experience at their restaurant.
DeleteOne badly-affected stretch in Golders Hill Park that they now periodically rope off adjoins one of the entrance driveways, and got that way because of staff reversing onto it to turn their buggy round when attending to the gates. There is a tarmacked turning right there ideal for this purpose, but a silly bollard got plonked across it. Which goes back to a fatal incident when a delivery lorry reversed into a deaf or partially deaf park visitor, after which a turning space for them was created in the staff yard, but someone still insisted on bollarded pedestrian separation down the initial driveway. Jim
DeleteA chain of foul-ups typical of our times. Everything now is a load of bollards.
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