Blackcaps have been singing around the Long Water for several days, but stayed hidden in the bushes. Today a male consented to come out in a treetop by Temple Gate.
A Long-Tailed Tit preened on a twig above its nest by the leaf yard.
The Coal Tit pair at Mount Gate came out for pine nuts ...
... and the Blue Tits were waiting too.
A Robin sang by the Serpentine Gallery, not one of my regular customers but it came down for pine nuts on the ground.
A Starling at the Lido restaurant was enjoying a chip.
A Green Woodpecker uttered its sarcastic laugh from a lime tree on Buck Hill.
A Carrion Crow collected bits of dead grass to line its nest in a tree near the Dell.
Pigeon Eater, whom I hadn't seen for several days, was with his mate in their usual place at the Dell restaurant.
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A Cormorant at Peter Pan jumped on to a post ...
... and landed short, but managed to flap its way up.
The Little Grebes were on the far side of the Vista, but I didn't manage to get both of them in the same shot.
The dominant Mute Swan and his mate had come on to the Serpentine, and he was showing off to her by chasing another male.
The Black Swan was with 4GIQ and was keeping her proper mate at bay. I am sorry to say that she was also raising her wings in defiance. She is a shameless hussy.
The six Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep are growing fast. They huddled and fidgeted in a heap against a chilly wind until their parents called them over to the grass.
As I was writing the blog I heard that one of the parents had attacked and injured a Grey Heron that had come too close to the goslings. The bird rescue group are trying to get the heron and attend to it.
They have been pressuring the management to at least put up notices about people letting their dogs run free around the lake, and have sent them some horrifying pictures of swans and geese injured by dog attacks, which are sadly frequent. They have finally got some results. But the risk of anyone being prosecuted is almost zero, as we no longer have the Royal Parks police.
The only bees visible in the Rose Garden were male Hairy-Footed Flower Bees. One fed on a pink hyacinth.
The Royal College of Art is right next to the park -- it's that hideous black building that spoils the view on the west side of the Albert Hall. Students often come into the park to photograph their efforts, and today on buck Hill there was a display of what looked like entrails hung on a pole.
I don't know what that is and I don't think I want to know.
ReplyDeleteLet's look at it this way: the sign may strike some sense into a small percentage of dog owners. That's more than we'd have if there was no swan. We have so few victories that anything that is even the smallest step in the right direction must be celebrated. You did your part, it was successful.
How can an Egyptian manage to hurt a Heron, of all birds?!
Tinúviel
We can also point the sign out to dog owners. Usually they are lost to reason and respond with vulgar abuse, but it annoys them so it's worth doing.
DeleteAn angry Egyptian charging full tilt can do serious impact simply by kinetic force. From what I hear the heron has a broken wing. This is mendable if it's one of the large upper bones.
And how do Egyptian Geese just know they can beat up Herons, also stealing nest sites from them (also according to Google, who cite this blog as their source!) It isn't necessarily down to who is heavier, even if they did know that. Kestrels parasitise Barn Owls for voles, despite the latter being well-armed and almost always more massive. Jim
ReplyDeleteI don't think Egyptians know. It's just a blind rush in anger. But yes, they certainly do steal herons' nests, and the evidence was visible in Regent's Park where the heronry has declined because more and more of the artificial nesting baskets were being occupied by Egyptians. I haven't been back there for a couple of years at the crucial time to see how that has been going, but I certainly saw it in the middle stages.
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