The Cetti's Warblers in the bushes east of the Lido have bred, and Ahmet Amerikali found them with two young ones. It's not clear whether this is an adult or a juvenile, as the young get a completely adult appearance very soon.
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Ahmet also found a Chiffchaff near the Henry Moore sculpture. There are usually some here, breeding in a bramble patch and sometimes singing out of season on sunny days.
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I found a flock of Long-Tailed Tits in the same place ...
... and both of the local pair of Robins, which surprisingly were perched on adjacent branches without trying to attack each other. Perhaps the prospect of pine nuts made them call a temporary truce.
The Robin at Mount Gate was also waiting for its daily treat ...
... and so was a Blue Tit in a crabapple tree in the Rose Garden.
Yesterday's strong wind has blown off a lot of dead leaves. They made a harmonious background for Pigeon Eater, who had just arrived and soon flew off to chase the other gulls away.
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A young Herring Gull played with a conker.
A line of preening Cormorants stretched across the Long Water on the posts at the Peter Pan waterfront.
They had also collected on the platform of the electric boat charging station on the Serpentine, driving off the Grey Heron which usually stands here.
Ahmet photographed one catching a perch under the Italian Garden ...
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... and also one of the Great Crested Grebes from the bridge about to bring a perch to a chick ...
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... which was waiting on the other side of the bridge. The peculiar swimming action of grebes is easiest to see with chicks, since their feet have bright yellow edges which show up through the water. This one wasn't in a hurry and was just idling along with one leg, with the other tucked under its wing. It doesn't paddle like a web-footed bird. Its stiff fringed toes slash through the water sideways like propeller blades. This action, unique to grebes, is much more efficient than paddling and accounts for their high speed under water.
More and more Shovellers are arriving on the Long Water for the winter. The drakes arrive still in eclipse and it takes them several weeks to grow their bright breeding plumage. The drake here is part of the way through, with its head going dark green and the female-type speckles on its body beginning to be replaced with solid colour.
There are still some Migrant Hawker dragonflies. This one was resting in the top of a hawthorn near Peter Pan.
Common Carder bees remain numerous in the Rose Garden. One was feeding in a clump of verbena.
I will never cease to be amazed by how Grebes propel themselves. If I look at a diagram or at the position of the legs it seems almost a miracle how fast and agile they are. An evolutionary marvel.
ReplyDeleteA day without Robins is a day without joy.
Tinúviel
It seems, thought it's not certain, that the long extinct Hesperornis propelled itself in this way. It has modifications to its legs very similar to those of a grebe. But this wasn't even a modern bird -- it had teeth --and it was totally unrelated to grebes, so this is an example of parallel evolution.
DeleteYou wouldn't think Cormorants would be such social birds, with the limited amount of food source of fish. And you don't see them fighting or nicking one another's catch either, which is unusual for their size and weaponry beak. And they don't seem to form territorial behaviour.. They are not aggressive birds at all. They don't go solo like the wading birds of Herons and Egrets, and I think this is to do with their costal background and not urban. Must be the sea air..
ReplyDeleteSean