Swifts zoomed over the Round Pond ...
... accompanied by House Martins (on the left here) and Sand Martins.
The Mandarin tried to keep her ducklings from straying ...
and one of the Mallard ducklings played with a ball.
A pair of Egyptian Geese with one gosling were preening together on the edge.
A pair of Mandarins preened at the Vista. The drake is a bit past his best but still quite presentable. In a couple of weeks he will have lost all his finery and look much like a female till next winter.
In the Italian Garden the unstoppable Coots with eight young were building yet another nest in the irises. It keeps them from fighting with the Coots in the other pools.
A young Moorhen lurked in the reeds on the lake below.
A Carrion Crow used a duckboard to dunk a bit of dry pizza crust.
The Reed Warbler was staying in the reeds, but from the pictures I took I managed to fill in the rest of the ring number: BLB1287. I will report this and see if I get an answer -- the last ring I reported on the Euring site didn't.
Just down the path a Blackbird sang and preened on a twig swaying in the wind. You can also hear a Wren scolding a Magpie, a Greenfinch and the inevitable shrieking Rose-Ringed Parakeets.
A Great Tit at Mount Gate ignored its shrieking fledgling for once and ate a pine nut itself.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee near the Physical Energy statue was having a hard time browsing on buttercups, because its weight made the flower tip over. This flower stayed up because it was resting on a leaf.
A patch of oxeye daisies at Peter Pan attracted a Tawny Mining Bee, Andrena fulva ...
... and two hoverflies, which I think are a Small Spot-Eye, Eristalinus sepulchralis ...
... and a European Drone Fly, Eristalis arbustorum.
On the other side of the statue a Holly Blue butterfly rested on a leaf.
Coots are like Bob the Builder. Very nice array of insects.
ReplyDeleteSean
But I am far from sure of the species of those hoverflies.
DeleteOoooh, I desperately need to see the Common Terns in the park!!!!
ReplyDeleteNot there for this blog post. They seem to like Peter Pan as a base.
DeleteI just love them so much. Too cuddly to pollinize!
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it: perhaps nest-building is a tool devised by Coots to cut down on savagery, promote civic behaviour and channel their excessive energies? Kind of like human marriage.
Tinúviel
Perhaps Coots have stable relationships reinforced by enegetic nest building as a sign of marital devotion. There is a small but perfectly formed PhD thesis to be written on this subject.
Delete