Sad to say, there has been a disaster at the Mute Swans' nest by the Lido resturant terrace. All the cygnets have gone and all that is left is one egg, probably a dud. It looks as if the killer male from the Long Water has visited. Both parents were hanging around sadly, but at least they didn't seem to be injured.
Any attempt at nesting east of the Lido has been abandoned, and the area behind the fence is now just a resting place for the local swans.
The Black Swan was on the Round Pond. He has been following a female here, which may or may not be his on-and-off girlfriend from the Serpentine. She would have to be seen out of the water so that her ring could be read. She didn't seem at all pleased by his attentions.
Life goes on elsewhere. One of the Robins nesting at the foot of Buck Hill took a moment off chick feeding duties to sing.
A Blue Tit on the path below may be one of the pair that nested in a tree near the Buck Hill shelter.
On the other side of the bridge at the Triangle a family of Blue Tits were bustling about in a tree. Here is one of the fledglings.
A Chiffchaff sang in an old sweet chestnut tree by the leaf yard.
Someone was trying to feed grapes to the Rose-Ringed Parakeets, which weren't enthusiastic and preferred apples. But a Starling made off with one and ate it with enjoyment.
Ahmet Amerikali found a Reed Warbler in a tree by the Diana fountain.
%202025%201a.jpg)
The Little Owls at the Round Pond were side by side in the lime tree, calling softly to each other.
A male Pied Wagtail trotted up the edge of the Serpentine picking up tiny larvae. Evidently he doesn't have a nesting mate, as he was eating them rather than collecting them.
They were vanishing so quickly that you can only see them in a still picture,
The Coot on the hopeless nest on the edge of the Serpentine is still hanging on, but now there is another in an equally silly place just up the shore.
The Mandarin ducklings on the Round Pond stayed out of the wind by clustering around their mother.
So did the little Mallards.
A very interesting picture by Jon Ferguson: a female Mallard on the Grand Union Canal with twelve ducklings. Some of these look like Mallard ducklings but there are also blond ones which resemble Gadwall ducklings. Evidently this is a hybrid brood. It was Jon who found an adult Mallard x Gadwall hybrid on the Serpentine, shown on this blog on 30 March.
%202025%201a.jpg)
The hyssop patch in the Rose Garden was crowded with bees, all Common Carders. It seems that the Buff-Tailed Bumblebees can't get into the little bells.
They have no problem with the bigger foxglove flowers.
Poor wee things, barely a few days alive. I wish something could be done about that murderous brute.
ReplyDeleteTinúviel
That’s so very sad. I only saw the cygnets yesterday
DeleteThe killer swan is, by the standards of swans, 'good'. He does everything for the sake of his line. A Roman kind of virtue.
DeleteMe and Jon actually don't believe it's the killer responsible this time. Nobody saw him on the main lake yet, and there is another swan nesting even closer to the bridge near Diana Memo. So he would have to fight with that couple first. I saw her yesterday with cygnets on the nest she wouldn't go close to the bridge. There is sadly the possibility they were stolen or taken by a resident heron who is now raiding the lido tables. It seems less likely the heron would have taken all of them so quickly.
ReplyDeleteJenna
I doubt the heron could have withstood the anger of a sitting swan. It may be quick to lunge but so is a swan. Also, the swan would have been injured, and isn't. I have already seen the killer swan distant from his family, and think it quite possible that he came under the bridge alone with murder in mind. He knows about that nest site, having attacked it only last year.
Delete