Rain pelted down on the Italian Garden, but the Coots and Moorhens can cope and a Carrion Crow has seen worse.
A Robin in the Rose Garden was looking very soggy on a box bush, but gladly accepted some pine nuts.
A quarter of an hour later it was back on a bench, even wetter and hungrier.
The female Chaffinch sheltered in a rose bush.
A Coal Tit kept dry by staying in an evergreen oak, only flying out to take food and quickly returning.
A Great Tit emerged from one of the innumerable varieties of salvia grown in the park.
A Blue Tit perched in the pink leaves of a spindle bush by the bridge.
A pair of Magpies nattered in a hawthorn beside the Long Water.
A Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge of the Serpentine.
There are usually Long-Tailed Tits at the back of the Lido, and some nest here every year.
At the Lido restuarant a Wood Pigeon climbed in an olive tree trying to pick the fruit, without much success as most of it was unripe and firmly attached to the tree.
There are plenty of olives.
It used to be said that the only olive tree in London that bore fruit was a big old one in the Chelsea Physic Garden warmed by being set against a sunlit wall. This one is in a corner of two brick walls and must get some warmth not only from the sun but also from the busy restaurant next to it. One of the fruits was already ripe. The olive harvest in Mediterranean countries is in November and December.
A Grey Heron stood on one of the wire baskets surrounding the island. It looks a very uncomfortable perch, but they seem not to mind and often fish from here.
The young Great Crested Grebe from the east end of the Serpentine was by itself fishing along the edge.
Coots kept flying, or at least skittering, up the Serpentine for no apparent reason. There wasn't much wind to encourage flying.
A pair of Egyptian Geese live in the Rose Garden, some distance from the lake. Their source of water is the Huntress fountain, which is almost always broken but fills up with rainwater.
The stump of the broken Lombardy poplar ar Peter Pan is now covered in Poplar Fieldcap mushrooms. The mycelium from which the mushrooms grow seems to have detected that the tree is dying.
There's something about photography wet birds in the rain. Even the ones with water resistant feathers, where you can get a still of a water droplet in full tact bouncing off.
ReplyDeleteSean
Truly amazing to see an olive tree bearing fruit in London. Is it known what they do with the olives? Are they harvested?
ReplyDeleteTwo of my neighbouring Magpies will take shelter under a window ledge in the building immediately opposite ours when it pelts down like that. They will look out, a slight bit anxious, and we'll sometimes make eye contact if I'm looking out of the window to see the rain.
Tinúviel
That olive tree was transplanted several years ago when the restaurant management destroyed a beautiful shrubbery of olives and pomegranates to install a rusty old 2CV van selling snacks. It nearly died but has now recovered. I think this is the first year it has borne fruit. Even when treated properly olive trees take a while to get going.
DeleteMagpies must be among the most intelligent corvids. They certainly know what you're thinking.