Two of the three latest young Grey Herons had come down from their nest for the first time. They stood uncomfortably on the wire baskets around the edge of the island.
The third was still in the nest.
A few minutes later one of the young herons had flown back up to the nest and the other was amusing itself by climbing in a clump of purple loosestrife.
They aren't independent yet and will be returning to the nest to be fed. Presumably this is the end of the very long nesting season, which started on 21 December last year and has produced 17 young birds from six nests, a record for the park.
Old nests remain useful. The Coots south of Peter Pan have long since finished bringing up their family, but both adults and young use the nest as a resting place.
Even the perennially unsuccessful nest on the post, which has now lost most of its twigs, still provides a useful perch.
The dominant Mute Swan continues his advance down the Serpentine. He had brought his teenagers beyond the Lido ...
... and was bullying another swan just for the hell of it.
An Egyptian Goose displayed its iridescent green secondary feathers.
One of the young Blackbirds behind the Queen's Temple was foraging under a lime tree.
A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew into the top of a tall lime by the leaf yard.
The older of the two familiar male Chaffinches in Kensington Gardens intercepted me by the Serpentine Gallery, again in a lime, and flew out several times to catch pine nuts in midair.
A threadbare Jay waited for a peanut in a dead tree by Peter Pan.
A visit to the clump of hemp agrimony in the Dell found a tiny Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, smaller than an ordinary Honeybee. They vary quite a lot in size.
There were also a handsome Batman Hoverfly ...
... a Common Drone Fly ...
... and a Greenbottle.
A Willow Emerald Damselfly pereched on the railings. Oddly, that's the best place to find one, as they like the warmth of the iron on a sunny day.
Tom was at Rainham Marshes and sent a fine but sad picture of a Reed Warbler feeding an enormous young Cuckoo that has been wished on the nest by its parasitic parents. Much as I love birds, I can't help finding Cuckoos horrible.
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It must be so nice to be greeted by a Jay like that, spontaneously. I suppose that's what years of building a bond with the park birds gets you.
ReplyDeleteTom got a good shot of the Cuckoo being fed. I'm planning to rush there Sunday for a couple of hours and see it for myself, for the first time. I find Cuckoos fascinating and how they have their ingenious way in survival of the fittest.
Sean
Tom couldn't find the Cuckoo today.
DeleteI don't like them either. It hurts to see such small birds toiling away for an insatiable monster several times its size. At least Great Spotted Cuckoos have the decency of picking on magpies their own size.
ReplyDeleteExcellent year for the Herons. I wonder, beyond how deft and adaptable they are, what other factors there are for such a record breeding year.
Tinúviel
One of the reasons for the expansion of the Hyde Park heronry must be the decline of the one in Regent's Park, which has been invaded by Egyptian Geese taking over the nests. That hasn't happened here -- yet. But it can't be the only reason, and I don't know what other causes there might be. Perhaps impetus: one or two successes cause emulation.
Delete