House Martins have started nesting in the ornate plasterwork of the Kuwaiti Embassy, just outside the park. There are never more than eight nests, but the colony has survived over the years.
The young male Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens is now behaving just like the older one, plonking himself down in front of me and calling to be fed.
A bold female Blackbird at the Round Pond stared at the camera. She was under the Little Owls' tree, but unexpectedly cold damp weather was keeping the owls indoors.
The male in the Dell was on the small rock in the stream, a favourite perch for all kinds of birds.
A Wood Pigeon fed in a blossoming Rose Acacia tree near the Rose Garden. It's eating the young leaves, not the flowers. This North American tree, Robinia hispida, is one of the many exotic species planted in the park in the 19th century. The park management are now only planting native trees, a safe but dull policy.
In the Rose Garden, a Great Tit perched on a yellow rose.
This is the mate of the tatty Blue Tit, a perfectly smart bird, in the pink hawthorn tree.
Both the Robins were also out. This means that either the chicks have hatched in the nest, or it's been predated by a rat. We shall have to wait and see.
A Starling fed the chicks in the nest in a tree hole by the boathouses.
A Pied Wagtail caught a midge on the edge of the Serpentine.
The Grey Heron chicks in the fourth nest on the island bounced and clattered frantically to encourage a parent to feed them. It didn't. They get large meals at long intervals, with no snacks in between.
The Mute Swans on the Long Water were feeding in the reeds next to a Coot's nest. They left each other in peace, in that odd truce that exists between these two aggressive species.
The swans at the boathouse have an egg. They are unlikely to nest properly. This site has never been successful.
There is a new family of Egyptian Geese on the south side of the Serpentine, with five goslings.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee collected pollen in a ceanothus bush by the Dian fountain.
Two excellent pictures taken by Duncan Campbell at the Wetland Centre. This is a Plain Tiger butterfly, Danaus chrysippus. It's a native of Africa, Asia and Australia, also occurring in n Spain, southern France and Italy south of the Alps, and heaven knows how it got here as the wind has been mostly northerly or northeasterly in recent days.
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A pair of Azure damselflies mating.
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Puzzled by the large deposit of Black Poplar fluff beside the Long Water, I looked for a tree and found a small one which seems unlikely to have generated that much of it. The fluff is the windborne seeds of the female tree.
About a fortnight ago we also were awash with poplar fluff. My car's windscreen was covered in it for days, despite there being no poplars in the vicinity.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm a bit worried about swans being underfed and underweight. I suppose there must be some selection bias and we mostly notice the most successful of the dozens or hundreds of swans in the park that look robust enough.
Tinúviel
Swans can look and act robust while still being dangerously thin. The feathers hide it, and you can really only find out by weighing them.
ReplyDeleteHow ironic that it is the embassy of a foreign government that provides what seems to be the only haven in and around Hyde Park for a species that has declined by some 40% in the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe building opposite, of exactly the same design, was preferred by the House Martins because it faced west into the setting sun, and stored heat in the masonry to keep the birds warm at night. So what did the French do? They blocked up the holes where the House Martins nested and put nylon spikes on every upward-facing surface. So the birds moved across. I think the Kuwaitis are generally OK with birds, people go to Kuwait to see interesting species. But mostly it shows the great advantage of not being stupidly fussy about tidiness.
DeleteJust goes to show how nimble the Pied Wagtail is? Catching a midge on the ground.
ReplyDeleteSean
The midges land on the algae. Wagtails catch them easily. I have a picture of the same bird with a different midge taken a few moments after that one.
DeleteAmazing sighting of a Plain Tiger. I saw large numbers in September on Lesvos where I'd never previously seen any. Numbers can be variable. I have seen them in the past in southern Spain alongside their close relative, the Monarch.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing this is more likely to be an escape?
Your damselflies aren't Common Blue but Azure. Note the small black spur on the side of the thorax- this is found on all the Coenagrion species of which Azure is the only one generally found in London. Common Blue lacks this and had broader blue stripes on top of the thorax (not visible here) along with other features. Female Azure tend to be greenish as here, though there are blue forms too.
I was thinking it was an escape from a show somewhere. Once I saw a blue Morpho at the Lido restaurant which had flown up from the tent at the Natural History Museum.
DeleteI looked hard at that damselfly picture and images of Common Blue and Azure, and decided it had to be the former because the black bands on the joint of the abdominal segments of an Azure go evenly all the way round. Or that is what I seemed to see.
The short black spur I mentioned 100% eliminates the possibility of these being Common Blue Damselfly-it's a diagnostic feature that means it can't be that species. In other parts of the country Variable as well as much rarer species such as Southern, Dainty & Northern Damselflies also have a spur, but Azure Damselfly, a very common species, is the only likely Coenagrion species in the London area.
ReplyDeleteIn addition looking at your photo enlarged it can be seen the male has a vaguely "U"-shaped (straighter lines than that letter) on the second abdominal segment. On a male Common Blue Damselfly there is a very different mark-like a black spade. This feature also means it can't be any of the other unlikely Coenagrion species.
Thank you for this very detailed guide. I wish the British Dragonfly Society's identification page had as much information as this.
DeleteMy pleasure. Its very useful for me to see your blog to see the various Odonata that are present in the park.
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