A Song Thrush sang very quietly to itself beside the Long Water. On a drizzly day it was easy to find worms and there were berries on the trees, so it was happy enough. At the end of the clip a passing Blackbird called ...
... as it flew into a hawthorn tree to eat the fruit.
A young Wood Pigeon had unwisely chosen a variegated holly tree with fewer berries than the ordinary green kind, and was having to work hard for its food.
Feral Pigeons sheltered from the rain under the cornice of the Serpentine bridge and took the opportunity to peck up grit from the sandstone.
A Great Tit in the Flower Walk perched in unseasonable viburnum blossom.
A Coal Tit came out of the bushes to take a pine nut.
Another in in the Dell clung to a yew twig ...
... while a Blue Tit waited in a bush.
The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge collected several pine nuts in the intervals of chasing the tits around.
A Carrion Crow showed the way to Peter Pan.
Jays are appearing again after their usual absence in autumn while they gather acorns. One was near the Physical Energy statue ...
... and another was rummaging in fallen leaves by the leaf yard.
The lack of people and dogs on a wet day allowed Canada Geese to graze unmolested on the lawn east of the Triangle.
The single teenage Mute Swan on the Serpentine was mooching around peacefully ...
... as the killer swan and his family were on the Long Water.
The Shovellers seem to have left the park apart from a single drake on the far side of the Vista.
A plastic fox has been installed on the jetty at the Lido to keep away the Egyptian Geese. However, it has been chained up to stop people from stealing it, which seriously reduces any fear it might inspire.
Am surprised that the pigeons can erode stone like that. Also some of their bobbing is at an odd angle to the surface or not making contact, and I wonder if that is a rain-bathing movement.
ReplyDeleteThe fox decoy looks in the photo as if it would be easily slipped out of the chain if it can first be detached from the board. Jim
I think the surface of the sandstone has gone a bit crumbly by itself and the bits have collected on top of the architrave of the arch. Good sandstone resists weathering better than limestone but it's still affected, and think of the Houses of Parliament faced with bad sandstone that flaked so that it had to be entirely replaced in the 1950s.
DeleteYes, it looks easy enough to unloop that fox from the chain, which I think is a motorbike lock. We'll see what happens.
Multi-tasking pigeons. No one who knows they're able to count up to five will be surprised.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone wish to steal a plastic fox? Unless it's for the purpose of doing harm for harm's sake, that is.
Tinúviel
The park is much troubled by pointless vandalism. Visitors will steal anything that isn't bolted down, which the fox should be. And someone might want it as a bird scarer for his own garden, though I doubt it would be in the least effective.
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