The Little Grebes haven't been seen for a while, which is not surprising as the chicks become independent, stop squeaking, and disappear into the waterside bushes. Today an adult fading into winter plumage came under the bridge on to the Serpentine and headed towards the island.
On the Long Water, the Great Crested Grebes from the nest under the poplar went past the Vista, each adult trailing one quite large chick. Usually this pair keeps the other pair with one younger chick penned up in the top half of the Long Water. But they had not noticed in time that their rivals had outflanked them and were heading for the bridge, so there was a confrontation.
On the left, the pair with one small chick. On the right, one of the other grebes and one of the two older chicks, with the others out of shot. It was the first pair that won the confrontation, and the defeated rival retreated to rejoin its mate and the other chick.
The grebe family from the nest on the north side of the island had returned to their nest site.
The two teenagers from the east end of the island were fishing together, and there was a glimpse of one speeding along under water. I still haven't seen them catch anything, but their parents are still feeding them.
All the perches for Cormorants at the island were occupied, so one flew up to the boathouse roof to dry its wings.
The Black Swan and his Mute mate 4GIQ worked their way up the edge of the lake touting for snacks from passers by.
There are now quite a lot Shovellers on the Long Water. The drakes are back in their smart breeding plumage ...
... though this one hadn't quite shed all the speckled feathers from his white front.
A Grey Heron stood in the nest on the island where the fourth brood had hatched earlier this year.
The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from the lime tree where she has taken to resting over the past few days.
The Jays ...
... and Magpies that chase me across Kensington Gardens ...
... have now been joined by a band of Jackdaws. Peanuts are in heavy demand.
A flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked through the trees at the southwest corner of the bridge ...
... accompanied by Blue Tits.
The local Robin took no notice of them and came out for his usual pine nuts.
In the Rose Garden a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee mangled a baby sage flower to get at the nectar inside.
I watched the two young grebes diving synchronously by the hire boat platform a week ago and in the course of half a dozen attempts they managed between them to come up with just the one tiddler. They would surface together and, on this occasion, the unsuccessful one squeaked at the one with a fish in its beak, just as it would to a parent. Without success, not surprisingly. One of the parents was keeping watch well away while the chicks were unconcerned by the humans looming over them. Joseph
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know they are catching something at least. With luck, success will breed success and they will graduate to independence successfully, They are trying very hard every time I see them.
DeleteBad Bumblebee, vandalizing the flower like that. For shame.
ReplyDeleteI had a moment's anxiety to see the small chick occupying what seemed to me the no man's land between the combatants. I hope Grebes aren't as horrid as Swans, who march their kids to battle. There was something sublimely nonchalant in how the Pochards carried on with their lives in the background.
Tinúviel
It is a curious arrangement, a flower that can only work for pollination if it's perforated by a bee. Baby sage is a cultivar of some ordinary Salvia species that may support more normal arrangements. The system is not unique: figs can only be produced if a fig wasp bores a hole in the budding fruit. (There are now several varieties of self-fertile fig that can fruit without this curious procedure, but the ordinary figs of commerce depend on it, and also on planting wild 'caprifigs' among the fruit trees to give the fig wasp a home.)
DeleteI don't think grebes attack each other's chicks, though they may chase off their own when they get too pushy. Bringing chicks to a confrontation gives an advantage through moral superiority. I was surprised when the pair with one chick won against the pair with two. Probably if the latter had gone in together with both chicks present they would have won.