The Robin near the Buck Hill shelter struck a grand pose.
A Robin in the Rose Garden ticked irritably at having to share its bush with some Blue Tits, and chased one away.
A Blue Tit on a tree was ruffled by the wind.
A Coal Tit waited in a rose bush. This is the one that is now coming to my hand.
The Coal Tits in the Dell remain shy but will take pine nuts from the railings.
As the fruit on the Japanese Pagoda Tree becomes harder to reach, the Wood Pigeons are losing their balance and falling out more and more.
A Carrion Crow waited in front of the shiny bronze leaves of a kohuhu bush by the Lido restaurant.
The female Pied Wagtail, hunting by the Dell restaurant, picked up one of the small white larvae that seem to be its main food in winter.
Just up the shore, Pigeon Eater was on the prowl. He narrowly missed a pigeon.
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A Cormorant flapped furiously on the edge of a fountain pool in the Italian Garden.
The Great Crested Grebes at the Vista seem happy to remain. There is probably good fishing in the trailing branches of the overhanging trees.
Jenna reports that the boss Mute Swan has abandoned his courtship of 4DTT and was wooing a new mate on the Long Water. She made a video, but it was viewed through reeds and you couldn't see much, so I'm not putting it up here. Will keep an eye on developments, of course.
The Black Swan was chasing a Mute Swan on the Serpentine. He really is getting ferocious. I just hope he can avoid a serious fight with the boss swan, which he would lose and probably get injured or killed.
His youngsters are now socialising with the other Mute Swans.
But the lone teenager is still clinging to its mother, and I have never seen it taking any notice of other swans.
One of the nesting baskets just installed on the Serpentine was occupied by a pair of swans. It's much too early to be sure yet whether they will hold on to it and nest there.
But the one by the Lido restuarant is still in the possession of a Grey Heron which uses it as a fishing platform.
Some joker has put a 'Beware of snowflakes' sign on the statue of Albert. Vandalism, but quite a feat of urban climbing including crossing the fierce multi-spiked railings and scaling some sheer walls.
I am reminded of the mythic Night Climbers from Cambridge, who wo
ReplyDeleteVery nice assortment of flailing pigeons. Come to think of it, it's funny that they fall upwards, not downwards. One of the perks of being birds.
Is the picture illustrating the new romantic adventures of Mute Boss the correct one? I think it's our good friend the Black Swan doing the chasing.
Tinúviel
Drat, I hit send too soon. The night climbers who would put up an umbrella on top of the tallest rooftops in Cambridge.
DeleteYes, thank you. I did that blog post in a great hurry and accidentally conflated two stories. Text now corrected.
DeleteThe speciality of the night climbers was to find a high inaccessible statue and put something ludicrous on its head like a traffic cone or a dustbin. This lot weren't quite so skilled, as a cone would have fitted nicely on the head of the oversized statue of Albert, and it's easy to find one lying around the park. Not that the good prince deserves such mockery.
Woodpigeons be like: "You do realise how much flapping hummingbirds, swifts, hirundines, terns, diving birds, most raptors, flycatchers, kinglets and many more have to do to feed, and still you laugh at us?" Lovely sequence anyway.
ReplyDeleteIn the mid-1980s there was a student at one of the Cambridge colleges who was paraplegic, it was said after falling from the college dining hall roof on a night climb. Jim
Perhaps the bird that spends the most energy for a meagre return when feeding is a wagtail in winter. All that sprinting around for an occasional tiny larva.
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