A flock of Long-Tailed Tits ...
... with Blue Tits tagging along passed through the trees by the bridge.
The Robin in the Flower Walk was waiting in a bush.
... and the one at Mount Gate struck a grand attitude.
Across the path a male Rose-Ringed Parakeet preened his mate on the railings. She shooed off another female: two's company.
When the Peregrines are away, Carrion Crows like to fly around the top of the barracks tower and perch on the complicated antennas. The wind creates amusing updraughts for them to play in.
A Jay at the Vista ...
... and a Jackdaw near the Italian Garden were expecting their daily peanuts.
The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in her usual lime tree, in a different place so that there was a lot of dodging around to get a picture.
A Great Crested Grebe and a teenager were under the willow at the bridge.
I though that this family from the poplar on the Long Water had only two teenagers, but three were visible today. They're moving around a lot which makes them hard to count. Here is another of them fishing by a reed bed under the Italian Garden.
The Black Swan was in a belligent mood chasing Mute Swans by the bridge.
Pochards collected under a tree by the Vista ...
.... where Shoveller drakes and females circled around each other. Each one's wake brings up little water creatures for the other to filter out with the bristles inside its large bill.
Others sat out the dance on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan.
The fox at the Vista stared back at the admiring onlookers. I gave it some shelled peanuts as a modelling fee.
A very young squirrel, hardly more than a baby, ate the fallen fruit under a yew tree in the Dell.
Colder weather has reduced insect activity, but in today's sunshine there were still some Honeybees on the Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden, and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee feeding on arbutus flowers.
By the way, in response to recent comments about different species of arbutus, I looked at three trees and I think they're all the same, with smooth cinnamon-coloured bark. The oldest tree, near the bridge, looks greyer and rougher but that seems to be the effect of age, and the younger branches are like those of the other trees.
Don't do as we used to do and feed fermenting arbutus to the chickens to see if they got drunk! (spoiler: they didn't).
ReplyDeleteThe aerials are like an amusement part for crows. We have gull spa, Heron feeding station, moorhen circus, and now crow amusement park.
Tinúviel
It's the updraughts the crows enjoy most. The horrible tower of the Royal Lancaster Hotel which spoils the view of the Italian Garden has no aerials to speak of, but the wind blowing up its sides creates a maelstrom at the top and the crows zoom around in it, I filmed this a few years ago and ought to do so again.
DeleteI hope that the male little owl is ok.
ReplyDeleteShe calls sometimes, so he's probably around somewhere. I just haven't found him.
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