On the first day of March spring is gathering pace. A Blackbird was singing in the Flower Walk, and you can hear a Coal Tit singing in the background.
The Robins at Mount Gate are now properly paired up ...
... and the ones in the Rose Garden not far behind.
Both the Coal Tits in the Rose Garden came to collect pine nuts ...
... and so did the pair at Mount Gate.
There was a Song Thrush here too.
A Great Tit perched in a paperbush in the Dell ...
... where a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was working over the flowers.
The usual male Chaffinch plonked himself down in the grass in front of me as I was going up to the Round Pond ...
... where the female Little Owl was sunning herself on a branch.
The male Peregrine was on the barracks tower by himself.
A Green Woodpecker called from a tree on Buck Hill.
Feral Pigeons like to socialise and bathe on fallen kerb blocks at the Peter Pan waterfront.
The turf laying people tried using toy windmills last year to scare the Carrion Crows and prevent them from tearing up the new turf. These had no effect. But they've now tried everything else they could think of, so it's back to the windmills.
The Grey Heron pair in the nest at the west end of the island were together again. But quite likely this on-off attempt at nesting will go on for months.
The young heron at the Henry Moore sculpture was standing just behind the fence, shamelessly begging from passers by. People have been feed it and it's now throughly spoilt.
Great Crested Grebes displayed on the Long Water, where there are now two pairs.
Last but far from least, the Black Swan is back. He was on the Serpentine. I'm as sure as I can be that this is the same one we had up to the end of last November, when the left and no one could find where he had gone.
I love a Blackbird song! Blackbirds and Song Thrush songs are probably my fav.
ReplyDeleteThat Crow looks absolutely petrified from the windmill (Not)
Sean
No, it was strolling up to the windmill and calling its friends to come and share the buigs.
DeleteIt probably does work for average crows elsewhere, but these are Hyde Park crows. They don't take any prisoners.
DeleteJenna
Our crows certainly know their way around humans.
DeleteIm a bit baffled to how they expect it to even work. It just reflects light doesn’t it… birds, especially Crows, must know and see it cannot harm them in that way. The bird of prey scarer makes more sense and must perform better overall.
ReplyDeleteThe bird of prey kites scared no one. One was quite close to the very shy Fieldfare, which happily ignored it.
DeleteThe Black Swan is indeed the same one from before, our old friend Foggy. He was first spotted on the Round Pond early morning, so flew over to the Serpentine later in the day.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yes, I was pretty sure: large, pushy and clearly at home on the lake.
DeleteWelcome back to the Black Swan! He's a moody and secretive creature, but we love him all the more for that.
ReplyDeleteSo Blackbirds are singing, Robins are declaring a seasonal truce and Bumblebees are buzzing. Spring has sprung!
Tinúviel
Yes, it's really happening at last after the long grim endurance test of winter. Still, if you lived in Hawaii where the temperature is uniformly balmy all year round it would soon get boring.
Delete