The male Little owlet was out in the nest tree in Hyde Park. He's looking almost grown up now.
I couldn't resist filming him, thought he wasn't doing anything more than looking around.
The old male Chaffinch in the Rose Garden hasn't been visible for some time, so it was good to see him back and hungry as ever.
The Robin in the Dell also came out in a tree to collect some pine nuts ...
... and so of course did the reliable one at Mount Gate.
A Starling shone in the sunlight at the Lido restaurant.
A Grey Heron was looking fixedly into the reeds at the other end of the Lido, hoping that a fish would emerge between the stems.
The Czech Black-Headed Gull was in a commanding position on the old iron water level at Fisherman's Keep.
The Great Crested Grebe on the nest halfway down the island was still there, and clearly intends to take possession of it. It was adjusting a nasty old plastic bag. This is actually a valuable building material for grebes, as it reinforces their sloppy nests much better than any water weed would.
The grebes at the east end of the island are now down to two chicks, which is a shame but not unexpected with all the Herring Gulls waiting to pounce. One of them was taking a fish, about the largest size it could swallow but it managed.
The Coots near the Lido still have their one small chick.
There are quite a lot of young Moorhens now, though they are vastly outnumbered by the teeming Coots. This one at the Serpentine island is still in teenage brown but just beginning to get its adult red bill.
There was another in the reeds under the Italian Garden.
The lone Mute cygnet barged its way through a crowd of gulls.
The aged and very tatty Greylag Goose with ring U561 was walking stiffly along the south side of the Serpentine. It still seems to be coping. The bird rescue volunteers are keeping an eye on it.
A squirrel ate an old faded Chicken of the Woods fungus. Evidently they know which species are edible. However, I've never seen any fatally poisonous mushroom such as a Death Cap in the park.
A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee worked over the hundreds of florets inside a sunflower in the Rose Garden.
The Firecracker Plant at the Lido restuarant had Common Carder bees on it again, and only this species. Common Carders have a long proboscis that can reach down the tube. It seems that Honeybees can't reach, and perhaps the larger bumblebees are too big to perch on the narrow flower.
Maybe the tiny Bumblebees could?
ReplyDeleteHow much he's grown since he saw him last! It's funny how alerts he is to all sounds. He does look like a tiny self-calibrating radar.
Tinúviel
We'll have to see if a tiny Buff-Tailed Bumblebee presents itself. There aren't many of them, and I only know of one clump of this peculiatr plant.
DeleteThe Little owlet's eyes have now changed from baby jade green to adult yellow, and he has white spots on his head. But he still looks slightly fluffy.