A very happy Christmas to everyone. It was a beautiful though chilly day and the park was thronged with people, so there wasn't much to see and this is really just a round of the regular birds.
The reeds by the Italian Garden looked pretty in the sunshine.
A Nandina bush at the southwest corner of the bridge was making a fine show of berries.
As you can see, quite a lot of them have been eaten. I've never seen any bird feeding on the fruit here, and the twigs are too thin to support Wood Pigeons, so I think it must have been the pair of Song Thrushes at the bottom of the steps by the lake. They wouldn't come out in this exposed place when there were people around.
There was a good assortment of Christmas Robins: at the bridge ...
... near the Buck Hill shelter ...
... and at Mount Gate.
Coal Tits appeared at the gate of the Flower Walk ...
... in a bush in the Rose Garden ...
... and in the corkscrew hazel in the Dell ...
... where the pair were joined by some Blue Tits.
A Jay was waiting for service in a plane tree behind the Albert Memorial.
A Magpie foraged along the edge of the lake by the Lido restaurant. It's always surprising to see how they can find edible things in apparently barren places. Wagtails also hunt along this stretch with equal success.
The usual female Wagtail was farther along the shore at Fisherman's Keep.
Another familiar sight: the dominant Black-Headed Gull guarding his territory at the landing stage.
A Grey Heron at the island was conveniently captioned.
A Great Crested Grebe was lit by the low sunlight.
Four of the six teenage Mute Swans from the Long Water went under the bridge to cause trouble on the Serpentine.
One of the others stayed behind in their resting place in the reeds.
A pair of Egyptian Geese noisily claimed territory on a tree by the leaf yard, defying a single one on a lower branch.
Happy Christmas Ralph and thank you for all the time and effort you put into writing your fascinating blog every day.
ReplyDeleteYes - heartily agree - I adore this blog. It is a terrific record of the park. Thanks Ralph. Merry Christmas to you 🎄
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas dear Ralph!
ReplyDeleteThank you for continuing to inspire me to get out with my camera. You are a treasure.....
Happy Christmas, Ralph, and all readers! The first two pictures today could perfectly serve as reference for anyone who wonders what being inside a fairytale would feel like.
ReplyDeleteI see the mute teenagers all take after daddy. Although I suspect mum isn't much better.
Tinúviel
Merry Christmas Ralph
ReplyDeleteA very happy Christmas to everyone! The teenage swans have had plenty of lessons in being horrible when they have accompanied their parents on to the Serpentine, and it's clear they intend to carry on on the fine old family tradition.
DeleteIt was indeed a beautiful day with a sharp easterly wind. I got out for a couple of hours first thing, leaving before dawn & another brief walk after lunch.
ReplyDeleteAt least you were still able to get some decent photos despite the crowds.
I'm afraid one correction. Your berry-bearing shrub is certainly not a Cotoneaster. It's Nandina domestica, sometimes called Sacred Bamboo despite not being a bamboo. The fruits are said to be toxic to both birds & mammals, which I find odd as they must have evolved to be distributed by birds?
Thannk you for the correction. It is indeed odd about Nandina berries being described as toxic. Maybe the lower bunch that has been eaten was within reach of a Wood Pigeon. I think these have a high tolerance of at least some plant toxins, such as atropine in Deadly Nightshade.
DeleteI used to work at a site that had several fairly tall Nandinas but I never did see a bird feed on the fruits & would still be full of fruit at the end of winter. Maybe as you say the Wood Pigeons have a greater tolerance (hope so if they've been eating them)?
DeletePresumably in their native Asian range something must feed on them or there would be no point the plant having them? Certainly decorative from a human aesthetic point of view.
I need to go back and look at that plant to see if there's somewhere a Wood Pigeon could perch to eat those berries. So far it's only guesswork. But something has defintely eaten them. If it had been an early ripening branch and the berries had fallen off naturally it woulodn't be so completely and neatly denuded.
DeleteA very happy Christmas to you too! Thank you for the continued daily updates. I celebrated by feeding the crows with my convalescent mother in her local park. It strikes me they have two modes: either happily in big groups, all waiting their turn to get a peanut, or in pairs, jealously guarding their territory against others. I wonder what makes the difference.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there are two lots of crows: high-ranking and hostile, and low-ranking and tolerant. This seems to be the case with swans, for eexxample.
DeleteThis seems to apply to many birds, e.g. Woodpigeons, which may both breed and gather in flocks for most of the year. It seems that certain trees for whatever reason become communal areas that no one such pigeon or pair will claim as territory, though some individuals may still bully and chase off certain others within a gathering there. Jim
DeleteMerry Christmas, Ralph and everyone! I loved the Heron on the Heron boat!
ReplyDeleteAnd a very happy New Year to you and all.
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