The Grey Herons in the nest at the east end of the Serpentine island have already bred this year and raised three chicks. Now they've nested again and have more. I could see two from the shore.
A young heron by the Lido picked a small insect off the water.
The usual male Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens presented himself in the fallen blossom under a chestnut tree.
A Jackdaw sidled up to apply for a peanut. They are always polite, unlike Carrion Crows.
A Rose-Ringed Parakeet picked up a fallen crabapple on the path near the Steiner bench.
A handsome white and grey Feral Pigeon fluffed himself up before strutting around in front of a female.
Pigeon Eater spotted a pigeon that wasn't paying attention, but it woke up in time and eluded his lunge.
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A Pied Wagtail sprinted around in the parched grass beside the Round Pond.
It caught a small larva.
The six Mallard ducklings are already wise to the ways of the park, and when they see someone eating his lunch on a bench they come ashore and tout for a share.
The smallest Mandarin ducking is growing noticeably now, but it has a long way to go.
A Red-Crested Pochard drake, still in breeding plumage, rested at the Triangle.
I could see 25 Gadwalls from one viewpoint at the Vista, the most we've ever had in the park.
This is the white Greylag that doesn't have a mate. It's probably a sibling of the one with a normal grey mate, but you don't see them together.
Tinúviel sent this remarkable picture of a Great Crested Grebe chick carrying a smaller one on its back. I don't know where it was taken. Update: she thinks it was in Huesca in northeastern Spain.
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I've seen young Moorhens helping to feed younger ones from their parents' second brood, but this is more puzzling. Moorhens don't spend much time feeding their chicks which soon begin to forage for themselves, so they can easily breed twice or even three times a year. Not so with grebes: it takes a pair of Great Crested Grebes more than three months to raise their young to the point where they can feed themselves, and during this time nesting is impossible. So here the mystery is not that an older chick is happy to carry a younger one -- I think that's a basic instinct -- but where the younger chick came from. The difference between the two looks like a month or six weeks. I can only suppose that it's from different parents, got lost, and was adopted.
A Honeybee fed on a snowberry flower on the east side of the Long Water.
A Lesser Stag Beetle crossed the path below.
A Small White butterfly perched on a knapweed flower at the back of the Lido.
That's an ambush if I ever saw one.
ReplyDeleteCan you believe I finally managed to learn what sort of movement "to sidle up" describes? And it was thanks to the Jackdaw picture! I immediately knew what type of movement is meant by that verb.
I think the picture was taken somewhere in Huesca, in north-eastern Spain. I found it in a twitter account (@calvobetran_2).
It's a privilege to be sidled up to by a Jackdaw. When they first returned to the park about twelve years ago they were fantastically shy and you couldn't get within 50 metres of them. Paul and I gained their confidence by hurling digestive biscuits in their direction like frisbees. They soon realised that these were being thrown to, rather than at, them.
DeleteThe picture of the grebe family is indeed remarkable. I think that your assumption about the small young being fostered is likely to be correct.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that Herons can have a second brood, I have never known it but it is mentioned in Birds of the Western Palearctic. Our Herons in Somerset don’t start nesting until some of the Park birds are well under way.
Always, an interesting blog, thank you.
It's not certain that it's the same pair of herons as before. Nests often get reused, but I'm not sure to what extent a pair thinks it owns a nest that it has used and left. However, it has been a long time since the previous use of this nest. The herons here have a very long breeding season. The earliest pair started nesting in December, first noticed on the 21st. The nest shown here was occupied in January, so it was the second brood of the season.
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