Reed Warblers have arrived in the reed bed at the Diana fountain, where two males were singing.
The hawthorn trees are starting to blossom, attracting a Robin in the Flower Walk ...
... and a Blue Tit in the Rose Garden. Hawthorns are always popular with insect-eating birds as they seem to have more than their fair share of bugs.
A Chiffchaff sang in a treetop by the Henry Moore sculpture.
The female Little Owl at the Round Pond seems to have found a comfortable perch in the lime tree where the pair's new hole is. Her preferred branch is quite low but obscured by twigs.
Ahmet Amerikali was in Battersea Park, where he got fine shots of a Cetti's Warbler ...
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... and a Firecrest in cherry blossom.
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Four Grey Herons assembled for a moment on the Serpentine shore by the island ...
... and immediately started chasing each other.
A Great Crested Grebe was fishing around the wire baskets under the bridge, and the sunshine made it possible to get a better video as you could see the grebe under water more clearly.
The Coot nesting under the balcony of the Dell restaurant was busy arranging twigs when mysteriously a pair of grebes turned up carrying leaves. They soon realised their mistake and retreated. But what were they thinking of? They could see perfectly well that there was a Coot on the nest, but they made no attempt to dislodge it.
All was peaceful by the nest at Peter Pan ...
... but the two nests at the north end of the Long Water are too close together and fighting keeps breaking out.
Inevitably, a Coot was trying to start a nest in a silly place on the open edge of the Serpentine. Usually they realise their error after a couple of days and give up.
It's now hard to work out which breeding Egyptian Geese are which. The pair with two at the east end of the Serpentine have managed to keep them from the gulls for another day ...
... but I'm not sure where this one sheltering three goslings at the Triangle is from.
The lone survivior on the other side of the lake grazed peacefully with its parents under a willow.
There was a smnall crowd of hoverflies, maybe Common Banded Hoverfly Syrphus ribesii, flying at the back of the Queen's Temple.
I'm very puzzled by the leaves-carrying Grebes video. It's clear they either thought it was their nest or they thought it was not occupied. Because it cannot be that they thought to collaborate with the Coot, right? Let's see if someone has a theory.
ReplyDeleteDid the Little Owl call to alert you to her presence?
Tinúviel
That nest has been under construction by Coots for some days. It's impossible that the grebes didn't see this. However, they are eagerly searching for a nest site in a difficult area and perhaps got carried away.
DeleteThe owl was in the same place as yesterday, so I found her at once.
Lovely to see the Firecrest. Though I've been away always following the daily visits.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that isn't a Marmalade Fly as it doesn't show the double bands typical of that species. From the angle difficult to work out which species it is, but impressive you get it in focus!
Yes, I wasn't sure about that fly either. There were a lot of them and they were small. Maybe Common Banded Hoverfly Syrphus ribesii?
DeleteCertainly a possibility, Ralph.
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