Today's stars were two Common Sandpipers that Duncan Campbell found on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan. They obligingly stayed there while he went home and got his good camera.
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The Goldcrest in the yew in the leaf yard was singing again and put in an appearance.
A Robin collected midges on the other side of the path.
The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out in the afternoon, hard to see among the leaves.
Ahmet Amerikali found the male Grey Wagtail on the chain at the bridge, also finding midges for the nestlings.
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He also got a shot of one of the Reed Warblers in the reeds under the Diana fountain.
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A female Blackbird rooted furiously in leaf litter beside the path at the bridge.
The Coots' nest at the bridge was a busy scene, ornamented with oak and poplar leaves and with a good clutch of eggs. It's a pity it's in such a bad place, where a passing Herring Gull can snatch chicks whenever it gets the chance.
Moorhens like to rest next to things, perhaps to make themselves less conspicuous. Anything will do, whether it's a cleat on the boat hire platform ...
... or the six eldest Egyptian goslings.
A young Grey Heron and a Mandarin drake shared a tree beside the Long Water.
The Canada Goose family, always on the move, approached the bridge to go on to the Serpentine.
A second pair of Canadas is now interested in the Long Water nesting island that this pair used.
A male Brimstone butterfly drank nectar from lilac blossom in the Flower Walk.
A Dark-Edged Bee Fly browsed on a wallflower in the Rose Garden border.
A ladybird on a rose bush looked superficially like a native British species, but unfortunately it turned out to be an invasive Harlequin in one of its more normal patterns. Whatever their colour and pattern, the white patches on the head give the game away.
Wow, congratulations on Duncan! Those are excellent pictures of a very exciting sighting. They're so funny, moving their rump and and down while they walk.
ReplyDeleteMoorhens have the disadvantage of being on the smaller side and rather retiring and thus attract little scientific notice. I bet if their social and individual mores were studied in more depth, we'd have plenty of surprises.
Tinúviel
We do get Common Sandpipers occasionally, maybe one every couple of years. But the lake isn't a good place for them, and they always leave within a day.
DeleteMoorhens are wonderfully surreptitious. That, together with the ability to eat absolutely anything, is their great strength. Despite bullying by Coots, their numbers on the lake are slowly increasing.