Swallows and House Martins

The first Swallows were flying over the Serpentine, only a few of them and with a few House Martins.

In the long tradition of this blog, it's time to cite the ancient Greek proverb Μία γὰρ χελιδὼν ἔαρ οὐ ποιεῖ, 'One swallow does not make spring', which was quoted by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics  (1098a.17) and is now current in many modern languages -- the English say 'summer' rather than 'spring', which is less sensible. It was all too true of today, cold with a keen wind and occasional rain.

A Greek vase of about 510 BC, 120 years older than Aristotle and now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, shows three people looking at the first swallow of spring. Inscriptions too faint to show in the photograph, and written in the peculiar spelling of the Athenian dialect, say:

ΙΔΟ ΧΕΛΙΔΟΝ / ΝΕ ΤΟΝ ΗΕΡΑΚΛΕΑ / ΗΑΥΤΕΙ / ΕΑΡ ΕΔΕ

Look, a swallow / Yes, by Herakles / There it is / Spring already!

The Little Owls at the Round Pond were staying in their hole, and no wonder.

But spring is continuing unstoppably, and a Coal Tit ...

... and a Robin looked out from pink hawthorn blossom in the Rose Garden. The Robin had come up from attending his mate nesting in a bush, and took a pine nut to her before returning for some for himself.

A Robin was feeding a midge to his mate by Peter Pan, so they too will be nesting soon.

A Pied Wagtail on the edge of the Serpentine collected insects for his young.

A Long-Tailed Tit by the Buck Hill shelter was out hunting in a hawthorn.

A young Feral Pigeon rested in the middle of the path at the Vista, oblivious of danger. A gardener passing in a buggy sensibly picked it up and dropped it into a fenced area where the grass has been resown. It flew perfectly well so it wasn't sick, just clueless.

Two almost identical pigeons were browsing together on the south shore of the Serpentine. Pigeons do seem to seek mates that look like themselves, but these were so alike that they must have been siblings.

A Lesser Black-Backed Gull stared haughtily down from the roof of the Dell restaurant. She wasn't Mrs Pigeon Eater, who I think may be nesting in the middle of the roof.

The Coots nesting on the chain at the island were maintaining their nest. The structure slowly sags and has to be constanly built up to stop it from slumping off the chain.

The Coots in the Italian Garden were frantically busy feeding their eight chicks.

A pair of Mute Swans were making a nest behind the fence at one of the small boathouses. This site has never succeeded.

The even less promising site at the end of the Lido resturant terrace has succeeded just once, and this year we have seen that the sitting swan has seven eggs. She was dozing, but woke up and looked suspiciously at a Carrion Crow poking about on the edge.

The Egyptian Geese that I saw yesterday with three small goslings in the Cockpit were going there again. People passed with a dog on a lead, which caused the parents to yell defiantly at it but they didn't run to the water. If the dog had been loose there would have been trouble.

The eight at the Round Pond were safely near the edge. They are quite large now and their wings are beginning to develop. I could see no early signs of angel wing.

A Mandarin drake was alone at the Triangle. Two drakes are currently going around together, so this may be a third.

A woolly pupa dangled from a thread on a pussy willow tree near the southwest corner of the bridge. I couldn't find what insect it is, but knowing the species of the tree might help identification by someone more knowledgeable.