I hadn't seen the female Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens for months. She used to come out with her mate anywhere from the Flower Walk to the Round Pond and they would follow me asking for pine nuts. I fear that he's gone, but she was in the variegated holly tree between the bridge and the Vista. I put some pine nuts on the railings for her.
There was no shortage of Blue Tits in the Rose Garden ...
... and the usual pair of Coal Tits arrived.
The two in the Dell were in the corkscrew hazel. One looked out from the twisty twigs.
Both the Robins appeared at Mount Gate ...
... and the male in the dogwood bush was unexpectedly joined by a single Long-Tailed Tit that had strayed from the flock.
The female Pied Wagtail on the Serpentine is now quite used to being photographed.
A Herring Gull carried a leaf ...
... over to another for a bit of mild flirtation, which she responded to by sitting down. But they weren't really serious about each other, or they would have been moaning affectionately.
A Black-Headed Gull hauled up a rat-tailed maggot. These are the aquatic larvae of hoverflies, in the park probably the Common Drone Fly Eristalis tenax. The larva is much smaller than it looks, perhaps an inch long with several inches of siphon, but they get covered in algae during their incubation in the lake.
The dominant Black-Headed Gull was perched on the head of the Big Bird statue when he saw some people eating sandwiches on a bench. He flew down and sidled up to them hopefully.
A Great Crested Grebe was fishing under the willow by the bridge.
As I got to the other side of the bridge a Cormorant dived under the pontoon in the arch. There was the sound of a flurry on the other side as they met, and the grebe fled under the pontoon and surfaced.
The teenage Mute Swans were at the Triangle, hoping someone would feed them ...
... while their father cruised off for some enjoyable bullying.
If two pairs of Egyptian Geese get close to each other there's always a loud fuss.
Jenna's Red Bug is having a grand time.
Jenna' bug is eating much tastier things than I do!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the female Chaffinch is still doing well. I have learned not to give up hope when a familiar face disappears for a while: more often than not they're doing their thing somewhere else and then pop back.
Tinúviel
Yes, I was rather envious of the bug, most fortunate of insects. It probably came in on a bunch of flowers.
DeleteBut I'm not hopeful about the male Chaffinch. Its feet were in a dreadful state from the virus that they all get eventually, especially males. The male in the Rose Garden is also in a bad way, but bravely hanging one.
Ralph. Many thanks for the superb, and insightful, daily blog; and all good wishes for 2026. Two questions, please. First, given the prolific year for heron breeding in 2025 does sufficient space exist for the young or have some been chased away from HP and KG by parents and others? Secondly, do young Egytians ever survive in numbers except at the Round Pond or have some prospered in previous years elsewhere in HP and KG?
DeleteThank you for your kind words. To answer your questions:
DeleteFor herons, the park is not a closed system. If there are too many for their territorial behaviour to support, they will go elsewhere. For example, the heronry in Regent's Park is declining, and so is the heron population. I've seen 50 there in past years. So there's space for expansion just a couple of miles from Hyde Park.
Egyptians used to survive reasonably well on the Serpentine and Long Water, and so did the larger geese. Their almost total wipeout here is due mostly, perhaps entirely, to the surge in the population of Herring Gulls from the Paddington breeding colony.
Jenna's red bug looks quite similar to what we call Box Elder bugs here but it has more red on it - could be a distant relation.
ReplyDeleteJenna's bug belongs to a different family, Pyrrhocoridae, with over 300 species worldwide. See the Wikipedia article on the family. Red and black seems to be a popular colour scheme for bugs.
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