A female Blackbird, a Feral Pigeon and a Mallard drake visited the Huntress founatin in the Rose Garden on a cold drizzly English summer day.
A young Magpie, still with blue eyes, took a moment off pestering its parents to look around its new world.
You can hear a Wren ticking at the dangerous little predator. It came out from under the yew hedge.
Two slightly older Magpies played with a stick, watched by their parents on the lawn by the Diana fountain.
As usual, Great Tit fledglings were making a racket all over the park. This one was in the Flower Walk.
One of the Robin parents at Mount Gate arrived to collect pine nuts and took them back into the bushes. I still haven't had a clear sight of the chicks here.
The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out between showers. He's a tough bird and I've seen him outside in the rain sheltering under an overhanging branch.
At the Round Pond there has not an owl to be seen, unsurprisingly as it was windy as well as drizzly. The Mallard ...
... and Mandarin families were in good shape and (fingers crossed) the ducklings are growing fast.
Three Mandarins turned up at the Vista. The drake is now well into eclipse and looking sadly tatty after his former glory.
The Black Swan, still on the Serpentine, flapped his odd white wings. He hasn't started moulting yet.
A fourth Canada x Greylag Goose hybrid has turned up on the south shore to join the others for the June moult. These geese, presumably siblings, are not the same as the two that associate with a Canada on the other side and are often seen at the Triangle.
The Coot nesting on a chain at the island was doing some maintenance, necessary as the nest keeps sagging down off the chain. This nest has a slight chance of success as long as the Cormorant that likes to stand here stays away ...
... but this one at the other end of the island stands no chance at all, partly because a Grey Heron likes to use the tussock of grass on the wire basket as a fishing station, and partly because if any chicks were hatched here they wouldn't be able to climb up to the nest from the water ...
... and this one is just plain hopeless, though the Coot has persisted on it for more than a week now.
This year's young herons have quickly learnt the good fishing spots by the boathouses ...
... and the reed bed east of the Lido.
It's a fascinating sight to watch Magpies learn how to become the Magpies we know and love (i.e. thieving, opportunistic, and mischievous)-
ReplyDeletePerhaps we'll get to see the Robin chicks when they've perfected their pretty, spotty livery? They may think they're not ready for the camera yet.
Tinúviel
You'd expect the young of an intelligent bird to play. All corvids and gulls do. Apart from being fun for them it's useful training for grabbing things in their adult life as raiders.
DeleteI'm sure the Robin chicks will be visible soon. I've seen chicks from two other broods already. I go past this place every day, camera at the ready.