Mist and Saharan junketings

A misty day with occasional weak sunlight brought the Little Owl out into her usual lime tree. Her favourite spot at the moment is hard to see through the leaves, but probably when the leaves fall off soon she will desert it and may vanish into her hole for the winter.

The pair of Coal Tits arrived and followed me to the bridge, perching a a yew twig level with the parapet. This is the shy one who hangs back in the leaves but can be tempted out by putting down a few pine nuts.

The Coal Tits in the Dell ...

... and the Great Tits were getting impatient because I was trying to photograph a Goldcrest, unsuccessfully because it was always behind a twig. I gave up and put some well deserved pine nuts on the railings.

A Wren perched on the deodar tree.

There were several Jackdaws around the Speke obelisk ...

... and of course the inevitable band of hungry Jays. This one was in the American oak by the Vista.

The Robin just north of Peter Pan is a calmer bird than the one at the bridge, and stood fast on the railings while someone took a close-up picture with his phone. Several people are feeding it, so it regards humans as a useful resource and puts up with their behaviour.

A Grey Heron preened an enormous wing in a willow beside the Long Water.

Another looked down from Buck Hill, where it was hunting rats in the bushes. It would be interesting to know what proportion of their diet is made up of rats. It seems likely that they live almost entirely on fish but look on ratting as an amusing recreation.

Lower down the hill, the Egyptian Goose pair in the Italian Garden had crossed the path to feed on a particularly lush patch of grass.

The Black Swan made a foray on to the Long Water, wings raised aggressively ...

... in full sight of the dominant Mute family, but they ignored him. Even swans get tired of fighting.

These are three more of the dozen young swans that flew into the Round Pond. I now have a report on the ringed one seen on the Serpentine, with metal ring W56648. It  was ringed by P.J. Belman as a nestling on 1 July at Kew, since when the only time it has been reported is in the park here.

The young Great Crested Grebes have almost stopped pestering their parents, and are probably now catching all their own fish. One was resting under the bridge with its father.

The young Little Grebe is still on the Round Pond, here photographed in the vague light of a misty sunset.

The fox at the Vista waited patiently for me to shell some peanuts.

A celebration in the Kensington Gardens bandstand of the 50th anniversary of the independence of Western Sahara from Spanish rule. Since then its history has been one of almost continuous civil war, and the country is still divided between administration by Morocco and the self-named Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, with the United Nations poking in occasionally. As you can see from the flags, these people are from the pro-Moroccan faction.

Returning Common Gull

It was a dull grey day with not much happening, but the first Common Gull returned to the Serpentine for the winter and perched on the buoys at the Lido.

They will straggle in gradually during the course of the month, most of them going to the Round Pond where numbers usually build up to about fifty in midwinter.

 

The dominant Black-Headed Gull by the Diana fountain was annoyed that a Carrion Crow had perched on the head of the Big Bird statue, and buzzed the intruder till it left. Then he stood on the landing stage which is the centre of his territory and shrieked in triumph.

A Grey Heron on a post at the bridge was disturbed by Mute Swans chasing each other below him, and uttered hoarse squawks of annoyance.

The Black Swan had been on an expedition to the Long Water without being noticed by the dominant Mute pair, and returned under the bridge in good order.

The smallest Egyptian gosling, which had often been seen alone so that we were worried about it, was back with its family just down the shore. The Egyptian in the background is its father, with his distinctive speckled face.

A young Moorhen rested comfortably in one of the nearby baskets of water plants. It's beginning to get its adult red beak, and will have the adult dark brown and black colours after its next moult.

One of the young grebes at the bridge was fishing industriously over the wire baskets.

The slightly older teenager was resting in its usual place by the reeds under the Italian Garden. It spends a lot of time resting, so evidently it has already learnt good fishing skills.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from her lime tree.

A Coal Tit, the one of the pair that won't come to my hand, picked me up here ...

... and followed me to the bridge, where it perched in a tree beside the parapet. It's quite hard to feed, because pine nuts put down for it get grabbed by the larger tits.

Then it flew down to the lower level under the disapproving gaze of the Robin.

The four Jays also followed me around demanding peanuts. This one was on the railings at Mount Gate.

Long-Tailed Tit flocks appeared in several places. This one was in a hornbeam hedge at the Ranger's Lodge Garden, where a pair nested earlier this year.

A Song Thrush foraged in the wood chips under the trees on the north side of the leaf yard.

You can always tell when a stretch of grass has been reseeded, as Feral Pigeons soon notice and crowd in to eat the seeds. There can't be many left to germinate after the efficient birds have been at work. The park has a seeding machine that cuts grooves in the ground and tries to drop seeds into them, but most of the seeds miss and lie on the surface for the pigeons to get.

The gilded bronze reproduction of a tree struck by lightning, a work by Giuseppe Penone, was left at the Serpentine Gallery when his other exhibits were removed after their display in the summer. But sadly this intriguing thing isn't going to stay permanently. A notice at the gallery says that it's only here till 7 March of next year.

However, there is a real lightning-struck tree at the northeast corner of the lavatories on the Parade Ground, just as dramatically cloven. Trees struck by lightning are momentarily heated and the sap boils, so that steam pressure splits the trunk.

The lost restaurant

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine braved a chilly grey day and was back in her usual lime tree.

The four Jays here were constantly demanding peanuts ... 

... as were a pair of Carrion Crows in the variegated holly tree near the Vista ...

... and the Magpies by the Henry Moore sculpture.

The Coal Tit at the bridge is becoming bolder, and collected three pine nuts. It's getting better at dodging through the crowd of larger birds. Its mate is still lurking shyly in the bushes.

The Robin was ticking crossly at the spectacle, but had time to come out for a pine nut.

Only one Great Tit now appears in the Rose Garden, though I occasionally see a Blackbird and a Wren skulking in the flower beds. The thoughtless destruction of the shrubbery has turned the area from a haven for at least fifty small birds into a desert.

The young Grey Heron at the bridge was by the Triangle, begging for snacks from the passers by.

Pigeon Eater had dined and was resting on the roof of the Dell restaurant.

This restaurant was originally one of two futuristic buildings, both designed by Patrick Gwynne and completed in 1964. The other was the Serpentine Restaurant, which stood at the southeast corner of the bridge. It was built on a ground plan of nested hexagons, and featured hexagonal roof canopies. The services were placed underneath to give diners a good view, and it had a car park unobtrusively sunk into the ground. It was demolished in 1990 and not a trace remains. There is a page with more information and pictures here.

The Dell Restaurant, as it was then officially called, was built at the opposite corner of the lake. It was declared Grade II in 1995 and was restored a few years ago.

A Black-Headed Gull eyed a Moorhen picking algae off the marble fountain on the edge of the Italian Garden.

The Cormorants have now mostly left the lake after eating almost all the medium-sized fish. One remained on the Long Water, fishing by the reed beds under the Italian Garden. It swam past Peter Pan playing with a reed stem.

The teenage Great Crested Grebe is still fishing in the reeds, evidently with success as it shows no sign of leaving.

One of the young grebes at the bridge was fishing around the baskets ...

... while the other noisily chased its mother under the bridge.

The Moorhen in the Dell is alone again. None of its attachments seem to last more than a few weeks.

The smallest young Egyptian Goose was also alone, and I've seen it by itself several times in the past few days. Are the other Egyptians bullying it?

The Black Swan and 4GIQ hurried over for their daily issue of sunflower hearts.

When the wind is in the east, 'tis neither good for man nor beast

A chilly day with a biting east wind brought out hungry small birds. There were mobs of Great Tits ...

... and Blue Tits in the Flower Walk ...

... and the Robin at Peter Pan took three pine nuts.

Jays waited in a holly tree by the Vista.

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull on the edge of the Serpentine lay down to avoid being buffeted by the wind.

A pair of Herring Gulls waved leaves at each other and called in a bonding ritual.

Black-Headed Gulls washed and preened together on the edge of the Serpentine.

The young Grey Heron at the southeast corner of the bridge stared fixedly at a woman on a bench. Usually if people have food this makes them throw down a morsel, but she didn't have any so it was disappointed.

A heron stood on the swan nesting basket east of the Lido. No swans nested here so the basket remains in fair shape, unlike the one on the other side of the lake which was completely trashed by the Black Swan and 4GIQ.

The number of Cormorants continues to fall, but the one in the Italian Garden was still trying its luck in the pools. Probably it will fly back to the river soon.

The Great Crested Grebe teenager was fishing in the reeds below the parapet.

This is the first time I've seen one of the young grebes at the bridge catch a fish. In fact it got two in five minutes, so it's now fit for independent life. This was filmed over the wire baskets at the bridge, which are filled with twigs to make a perch hatchery.

Three female Common Pochards dived together at a distance from the drakes to avoid being bothered by them. Girls' clubs are also common in other duck species.

The Pochards under the trees farther down the lake are almost all male.

A squirrel in the Dell ate yew fruit next to a Stinking Iris. I've examined one of these plants and to my dull human nose it doesn't smell bad, but evidently the fruit is unpalatable as I've never seen anything eating it.

The Rose Garden is fairly well shielded from the wind, and a few tough insects were out. A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on a clump of blue sage ...

... and there were several Common Wasps in the autumn-flowring camellia.