A young Pied Wagtail was already catching midges for itself on the plastic buoys around the Lido swimming area. It paused for a preen.
There was an adult male on a post at the Vista, but it's not clear whether he's the father. There are at least two pairs on the lake.
There's only one pair of Grey Wagtails. One was on a fallen tree just south of Peter Pan, where there are abundant midges under the bushes. You can see one out of focus on the right side of the picture.
A Long-Tailed Tit near the Buck Hill shelter was busy picking up food for its young, and had a caterpillar and a couple of insects.
At the northwest corner of the bridge there was a lot of calling and rushing around in the bushes and I think the young ones are out of the nest, but the only picture I could get was of an adult.
The Robin near the Italian Garden with whom I had an encounter yesterday came out again, already carrying a spider but happy to take some pine nuts as well.
A Great Tit waited on a rose in the Rose Garden.
A Song Thrush sang in the enclosure around the Lido terrace.
A Starling ate an apple that someone had spiked on the railings near the Buck Hill shelter, intending it for the Rose-Ringed Parakeets.
A parakeet ate early fruit in the red-leafed cherry tree near the bridge.
Two Reed Warblers were singing in the reeds near the Serpentine outflow, and one of them was partly visible for a moment.
The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual lime tree, showing slightly better than usual.
The Great Crested Grebes at the island were at their nest on the chain. I haven't seen any sign of eggs yet. Also they both look male. Grebes have little or no idea what sex they are and sometimes make mistakes, but a pair that doesn't produce eggs will split up and the two will look for other mates.
The Mute Swans 4HDW and 4DTT, both widowed and now forming a new pair, were on the gravel strip on the Long Water. This is really not a good place to nest, as 4HDW knows perfectly well as his previous mate was killed by a fox there. But they are ignoring the safe nesting island near the Italian Garden.
The six Egyptian teenagers rested comfortably on the grass by Fisherman's Keep. Their mother, out of the picture, was keeping an eye on them as usual.
A pair of Gadwalls scraped algae off the concrete edge of the lake, visible in the clear water.
An allium patch in the Rose Garden had attracted a Honeybee and a pair of mating Harlequin ladybirds ...
... and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.
Tom was at Rainham Marshes and filmed a Spoonbill washing.
Has anyone done a census of Long Tailed Tits in the park? It seems to me they are doing really well, from anecdotal evidence.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if birds where sexual dimorphism isn't an issue even know what sex they are supposed to be.
Tinúviel
It's a serious job doing a census of one species. In 2011 Roy Sanderson organised one for Blackbirds in Kensington Gardens, which is only a third of the whole park. It involved half a dozen volunteers each walking over a designated area on the same day at the same time, repeated once a week for four weeks, and marking birds seen on a map he supplied. The results showed a shocking decline: a previous survay in the 1950s found over 200 territories and the 2011 one found 18. The main reason for this, he reckoned was habitat destruction especially clearing fallen leaves with leaf blowers. This was communicated to the park management who, of course, took no notice at all.
DeleteBut I do think that numbers of Long-Tailed Tits are increasing.
I'm told that Greylag Geese also sometimes accidentally form same-sex pairs.