One of the Coal Tits in the Dell picked me up as soon as I approached ...
... and followed all along the edge, taking pine nuts all the way. This is normal behaviour for Coal Tits once they get confident. They hide the pine nuts in cracks in bark, so that they can collect as many as possible and eat them later.
A male Chaffinch also wanted feeding ...
... and a Wren stood aloof on a rock.
The usual Robin in the Rose Garden appeared in a hawthorn.
The Robin at Mount Gate is so confident of being fed that it didn't bother to call, and I nearly walked past it.
Carrion Crows, Magpies and Jays are usually found in particular places, but Jackdaws are very mobile and can crop up anywhere. This one appeared by the Speke obelisk.
The dominant Black-Headed Gull was at his station on the landing stage.
A Cormorant on a post at Peter Pan dried its wings and preened.
All the usual perches at the island were occupied, and this one had to go up in a treetop.
One of the Great Crested Grebe chicks at the east end of the island was quietly diving by itself ...
... but the other was clamouring at its mother to bring a fish.
A Coot is much too buoyant to be an efficient diving bird. Each dive to pick algae off the bottom is a frantic head-down scrabble, and as soon as it stops paddling it pops up to the surface like a cork.
Greylag Geese enjoyed the sunshine in a patch of dead leaves.
The solitary young Egyptian Goose on the Serpentine is now almost fully grown and already able to fly.
A pair of Gadwalls cruised sedately under the bushes at the Vista.
There was a very tattered Small White butterfly on the Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden. Their season is almost over.
It's beginning to get its crest, isn't it? Even if it's still gorgeously stripey.
ReplyDeleteDo Coal Tits remember where they store their pine nuts? I thought only Jays did that.
Tinúviel
Young Great Crested Grebes somehow manage to remain pretty throughout their development, a rare feat.
DeleteI'm constantly amazed at how intelligent Coal Tits manage to be with a brain smaller than a pea. I'm sure they remember their hiding places. They don't have to store the memory for months like a Jay.