National Robin Day

It's National Robin Day. I had no idea that there was such a thing, but luckily I was told about it. It seems quite sensible to have it at the winter solstice, because the Robin is the principal winter singer in Britain. This is one of the pair at Mount Gate, having to raise its voice to be heard above the noise of the traffic on the West Carriage Drive. Near the end you can just hear it being answered by its mate.

More Robins: in the Flower Walk ...

... at the southwest corner of the bridge ...

... and in the hawthorn in the Rose Garden.

The male Chaffinch in the Rose Garden arrived to be fed ...

... and this rose bush always fills up with various tits waiting for their daily pine nuts.

Both the Coal Tits in the Dell were waiting in the corkscrew hazel bush ...

...taking no notice of a Magpie looking down on them from a high branch.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits moved round the edge of the Long Water.

A Jackdaw perched in the top of a hawthorn near Temple Gate, the only one I saw all day.

The female Pied Wagtail was hunting near the Lido as usual. Seconds after I took this picture her mate flew over and the two raced off together across the lake twittering at each other.

Pigeon Eater was with his mate on the roof of the Dell restaurant, calling loudly.

A pair of Grey Herons stood together in the nest at the west end of the Serpentine island. This nest has never succeeeded so far, but these are a different pair from the ones that had it last year and the year before, so there's no reason why they shouldn't make it this time.

The Mute Swan family from the Long Water like to stand on the edge at the Triangle, and they aren't going to let the installation of the new reed beds keep them away. The flimsy frame of PVC plumbing pipe which is supposed to protect the growing plants is already broken in several places, probably from having swans jump on to it. In the background you can see an Egyptian Goose that has occupied one of the new floating baskets ...

... and here is a closer look. If a swan requisitions the basket in the spring it will be evicted. But Egyptians could nest here if left in peace: they don't always use tree holes.

The little stream in the Dell, only 50 yards long, is the only part remaining above ground of the Westbourne river, and even this is a channel dug some way from its original course. Not much water goes through it nowadays, so the flow is enhanced by a large electric pump which powers a waterfall at the top end. It's full of carp, some of them quite large, whose ancestors will have been washed into it from the Serpentine.