A Green Woodpecker called from a tree on Buck Hill, and I found it preening.
A Chiffchaff sang in a tree by the leaf yard. Usually they are much higher up and flit around after each phrase which makes them almost impossible to film, but this one was quite obliging.
Greenfinches always sing their wheezing, twittering song from high in a tree. This one was also by the leaf yard. All finches like alders, and eat the seeds.
A Song Thrush on the lawn by the Henry Moore sculpture pulled up a small worm.
A Blackbird perched in a nearby tree.
A Redwing appeared unexpectedly on the lawn between the Dell and the Rose Garden. There was a man trying to scare the crows off the new turf on the Parade Ground, which had disturbed it from its usual feeding place.
The usual crew touting for pine nuts in the Rose Garden included the pair of Robins ...
... and Coal Tits.
There was also a Jay in a wattle tree. The Jays in Hyde Park are a much wilder bunch than those in Kensington Gardens, and are not accustomed to being fed. A peanut thrown on the ground didn't interest it.
The Long-Tailed Tits by the bridge were jumping around in a cherry tree.
A Grey Wagtail could be heard in the Italian Garden. It was on the edge of the lower pool of the marble fountain. This is not the young bird we usually see: its black bib shows that it's a full adult.
It flew into the garden and joined a Pied Wagtail hunting midges from the the edge of a fountain pool.
The Coots' nest on the post at Peter Pan is now large, and constantly being added to. It's precaroiusly sited on a single chain, but doesn't overbalance because it keeps subsiding and there is a great soggy mass under the water holding it steady.
A pair of Great Crested Grebes were displaying under the bridge. They were from the Serpentine, wondering if they could find a nest site under the bushes on the Long Water. Angry cries from a resident grebe on the far side warned them off.
A Mandarin drake passed under the bridge unopposed.
A pair of Gadwalls came ashore at the Triangle to preen and examine the weeds on the edge of the shrubbery.
The Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine are down to their last two goslings.
I reckon the pair of Coots that have the silly exposed nest think they are in a Disney movie, where all animals get along. All joking aside, I really do hope they can fight the odds.
ReplyDeleteSean
In all the years they've nested in that place, they've only succeeded once in raising any young.
DeleteSometimes their persistence works against them.
DeleteWhat extraordinary colours in the plumage of the displaying Grebes. Enlarging the picture shows every lovely colour of their lovely feathers.
I swear, Spanish Greenfinches wheeze differently. There must be national accents!
Tinúviel
The grebe picture was taken in the shadow of the bridge, where all the light comes in horizontally through the arch and gives strongly contrasted lighting effects.
DeleteI've often read about local races of bird having different accents. Hardly surprising when you look at humans.