A Green Woodpecker climbed a tree by the Queen's Temple. Several can be heard laughing around Kensington Gardens at the moment.
After a chilly start, afternoon sunshine warmed the day and the Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out on a branch.
A male Blackcap was singing in a hawthorn between Peter Pan and the leaf yard ...
... and on the other side of the path several Jackdaws came out to be fed.
A Song Thrush singing in a treetop by the leaf yard was answered by a Chiffchaff.
A Wren at the northwest corner of the bridge had caught a midge.
Another appeared at the other side of the bridge on an acanthus in the Triangle shrubbery ...
... where the male Chaffinch from Kensington Gardens had followed me again.
All three Robins at Mount Gate were waiting to be fed. This is the single one, which is quite well tolerated by the pair when they all come out in the flower bed.
The male Pied Wagtail was hunting along the edge at Fisherman's Keep, twittering loudly. I haven't seen his mate for a couple of days.
Every year a pair of Coots build a nest under the Dell restaurant balcony. The water is about three feet deep here, but a substantial pile of waterlogged branches brough in by the Coots in earlier years lasts through the winter and provides a base for the new nest.
The odd trio of a Gadwall drake mated with a female Mallard, and a spare Mallard drake, were on the edge of the Serpentine near the Triangle. Ducks often appear in trios with a spare male, but it's unusual to have one of two species.
The Egyptian Geese with six fast growing goslings enjoyed a rest in the sunshine, at peace until the next loose dog coame along and tried to chase them.
A Mute Swan at the Vista tried one of the clumps of sprouted wheat thrown into the water after the Zoroastrian Nowruz, the New Year celebration at the spring solstice. The swan took one bit and left it. None of the birds seem to like these attractive-looking green shoots: even Coots won't eat them.
There were plenty of insects in the herbaceous border in the Rose Garden, but nothing unusual. A Yellow-Legged Mining Bee explored a clump of polyanthus ...
a male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee fed on a pansy ...
... a female preferred a pink hyacinth ...
... and a Eupeodes luniger hoverfly, which has no satisfactory common name, browsed on a wallflower.
You'd think animals so fond of bread would jump at the prospect of eating wheat sprouts. I wonder what's there that they dislike or disagrees with them.
ReplyDeleteSong Thrush are a requisite for happiness. And Owls. So we have two out of two.
Tinúviel
I am not sure whether the so-called 'wheatgrass' health drink is made out of these sprouts, but at any rate it tastes as if it was made from the outflow of the rivers of Hades. One sip and never again. Just because a plant produces edible grain doesn't mean that its shoots have to taste good.
DeleteI agree completely with Ralph about wheatgrass. I could believe it kills birds.
DeleteLovely shot of the Green Woodpecker & I always love hearing them call.
ReplyDeleteI was out for several hours in the morning when it was cool & grey so useless for insects but did see a Comma & Small White in the front garden in the afternoon sunshine.
From what I understand on the Eupeodes hoverflies these are tricky to take to species level. E. luniger is easy to identify when a female if you can see a "Y" shape on the frons. Yours is a male (eyes close together) so believe this should be Eupeodes sp, though could well be E. luniger.
The only butterflies I've seen so far are Brimstone, Small White, Painted Lady and (distantly so not sure) Red Admiral. Thanks for your warning about E. luniger.
DeleteCertainly an early Painted Lady. One I've yet to see. Have seen the others plus 2 male Orange Tips & a brief Holly Blue in the garden.
DeleteNo Orange Tip so far. They are quite rare in the park. Holly Blues are common, but none seen yet.
DeleteGreen Woodpeckers seem to have increased markedly here in North Somerset over the last two or three years. Perhaps it’s similar in the London area?
ReplyDeleteYes, we seem to have more here too.
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