On a beautiful sunny day a Cetti's Warbler was surprisingly visible in the bushes by the Vista. Not only that, but it had a ring and it was possible to read it: BEF2112. I've reported it, and it may be interesting to see where it came from. No one is ringing small birds here in the park.
There was a Green Woodpecker in the tree above ...
... and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in a tree across the path by the leaf yard. It was very high up and I didn't get much of a shot, but Ahmet Amerikali found it lower down and got a good picture. It's a female, without the male's red patch on the back of the neck.
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A pair of Rose-Ringed Parakeets were mating in a nearby tree. The male was unexpectedly enthusiastic.
Near Peter Pan, several Greenfinches could be seen in a tree. This is a male ...
... and here is a female.
A Long-Tailed Tit was collecting lichen for its nest in the top of the same tree.
A Magpie looked smart in a nearby cherry tree ...
... and a small group of Jackdaws arrived to ask for pine nuts.
A Blue Tit perched in new leaves in the Rose Garden.
The Coal Tits weren't showing well anywhere, but I got a murky shot of one deep in the bushes at the southwest corner of the bridge.
There was a Goldcrest in a yew tree above.
Starlings chattered on the umbrellas at the Lido restaurant.
The male Little Owl was calling by the Ranger's Cottage.
Katja reported another Little Owl near the Speke obelisk. We used to have a pair here until 2022, when the old chestnut tree they nested in was killed by the drought and they left. This may be one of those, or a descendant.
The young Grey Herons in the top nest on the island were climbing around restlessly.
A Cormorant at Peter Pan forced another off a post, just to assert dominance. It could easily have chosen the next post which was empty.
A pair of Great Crested Grebes mated on a nest they have built on the edge of the reed bed by the Serpentine outflow.
Ahmet Amerikali found a Little Grebe on the Serpentine, a surprising place as the wide open expanse of water doesn't suit their habits.
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The Egyptian Geese still have seven goslings.
Spring is magical
ReplyDeleteSean
Congratulations on the excellent and very detailed picture of the Cetti's Warbler! They are so hard to see it's nothing short of amazing that the picture should be so good and so clear as to allow to read the ring.
ReplyDeleteDo the small birds still mob you as hard as they did during the past month as soon as they caught sight of you?
The ring had to be read from various photographs showing it from different angles. You don't always get enough views but this time I was lucky.
DeleteThe small birds are still coming, but not in desperate mobs as they did when it was cold.
Well captured with the Cetti's Warbler & it will be fascinating to find out where it was ringed?
ReplyDeleteDespite a huge fall in their numbers a few years back due to disease Greenfinch is now by far the most frequently encountered finch on my daily travels. Goldfinches are now much scarcer which is a turn around rom a couple of years back.
For several years now, ever since the time when Greenfinches were supposed to be being knocked out by the respiratory virus, we've had plenty in the park and numbers are increasing. But we have never had many Goldfinches and they still seem to be getting fewer. I went past all the possible Goldfinch places on Monday and not a twitter was heard.For some reason we seem to have been in advance of the trend.
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