A Blue Tit called from a flowering cercis bush in the Rose Garden.
Another at Mount Gate was lurking in the pink-flowered currant bush ...
... along with the single Robin, the only one of the three that will come to my hand.
Across the path a pair of Long-Tailed Tits jumped around in a Japanese maple.
A Chiffchaff sang in an alder near the Italian Garden. A pair are nesting in the brambles below.
Ahmet Amerikali got a fine picture of the Cetti's Warbler at the Vista ...
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... and a male Blackbird carrying larvae. It's good to see that they are already nesting.
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A female Magpie on the lawn outside begged her mate to bring her food. He was reluctant to respond, but he won't get anywhere till he does, as she is testing him to ensure that he will feed her when she is on the nest.
The two young Grey Herons in the top nest playfully grabbed each other's bills. Done to a parent, that gesture would be a demand to be fed, but here they were just being silly with each other.
The three younger Grey Herons on the island are growing up. They can probably fly by now, though I haven't seen one any farther out of the nest than it could climb. They will still be fed by their parents for several weeks.
The solitary first-year Black-Headed Gull was still at Fisherman's Keep. It's a bit tatty but seems healthy and its wings are in good order, so it's odd that it didn't fly away when the others left for their breeding grounds.
Just offshore, a pair of Great Crested Grebes dozed as they were bounced by the choppy waves raised by a stiff breeze.
The Mute Swans nesting in the reeds near the outflow are 4DVZ and 4FYF. I could only read one of the rings yesterday.
The standoff on the Long Water is still holding. The boss was on his nest site in the reeds under the Italian Garden ...
... and his mate was resting in the water near the nesting island ...
... but neither of them was bothering the Canada Goose sitting on her eggs.
I simply don't understand why the boss hasn't claimed the nesting island he used successfully last year with his late mate.
Two swans on the Serpentine gained altitude to fly over the bridge on their way to the Round Pond.
The six eldest Egyptian goslings on the Serpentine have been spoilt by visitors feeding them. If you stand still they come towards you expectantly. I don't feed them. It's much better that they should get their natural diet of grass and larvae, and bad diet may be a factor in them getting the 'angel wing' deformity caused by weak bones, though this is certainly also hereditary.
Hi Ralph. I agree birds should be getting their greens. Sadly too many dog attacks lately. It's safer to feed them in that rogue dog infested park.
ReplyDeleteJenna
When I was filing those goslings from various angles, three men came through with loose dogs within fibve minutes, all of which tried to attack the family. I tried to remonstrate with the owners politely and each time was met with shouted obscene abuse. I'm beginning to think that people own dogs to prop up their defective personality.
DeleteIt costs a lot of time and effort to rehab these birds, they often have to be separated from their mates. Many don't survive even with prompt care or don't get noticed in time and die from blood sepsis. Parks couldn't care less.
DeleteJenna
Often the parks people are actively hostile, and even when they aren't they're hopeless. When I found that dead swan on the shore I talked to a man who had witnessed its last moments and had rung the number on the notice about sick or injured birds. He described them as 'the square of useless'.
DeleteLooks like pieces of an earthworm the Blackbird has. Jim
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about that. But the segments seem too tapered for a worm, so rightly or wrongly I supposed it was a larva.
DeleteSo interesting to learn about the female magpie testing the male to see if he will feed her after nesting begins.the photography is beautiful too! Sorry to learn about the indifference to the birds manifested in some quarters.
ReplyDeleteMost 'courtship feeding' in birds prior to egg incubation serves to provide the female with additional nutrition when she is forming the eggs. Although how the birds view it is unknown. I suggest it also means the female need not rove too far from the nest site and risk accidentally laying elsewhere. This blog has featured a case of ducks having such an accident (they do not courtship feed.) Jim
DeleteIt also happens quite often to the geese on the lake, and I've even seen a lost Mute Swan's egg far from a nesting site.
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