More Egyptian goslings

It turns out that there are two families of Egyptian Geese on the Round Pond, the one I saw yesterday with nine goslings ...

... and another pair which originally had eight but is now down to six. They were on opposite sides of the pond, so there was no fighting for now.

A pair on the Serpentine has nine, photographed by Ahmet Amerikali.

There is also a report of a Mallard with twelve ducklings.

The Black Swan was ashore at the Dell restaurant, begging with practised skill.

A Great Crested Grebe shooed off a Coot which had wandered too close to its fishing ground.

A Cormorant on a post at Peter Pan found the spring sunshine a bit too warm, and panted to cool down.

Four Common Gulls harassed a Black-Headed Gull carrying a bit of food.

The Grey Herons at the west end of the island were in and by the nest.

The middle nest also had two in attendance. The top nest has eggs in it and a parent has been sitting for a while, but so far it's not clear if anything has happened.

The young heron in the reeds under the Italian Garden stared intently into a gap. It lunged, but didn't come up with a fish.

The Fieldfare is still on the Parade Ground. Today it came within 50 yards of the fence and there was a chance of a slightly better picture.

There were also two or three Redwings, but these stayed impossibly far away.

Wood Pigeons ate blossom in a cherry tree near the bridge. Though greedy, they do much less damage to trees than the invasive Rose-Ringed Parakeets.

Cherry blossom in the Rose Garden attracted a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.

A Blue Tit perched among leaf buds.

Ahmet got a picture of one of the Long-Tailed Tits on Buck Hill gathering moss for the nest.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was out on a branch.

A sad ending: a young fox with an injured hind leg limped across the lawn between the Dell and the Rose Garden.

It climbed into a bush in the garden. But when rescuers arrived a few hours later they found it dead. Probably it had been hit by a car and died of internal bleeding.

Stonechat on Buck Hill

A male Stonechat appeared on Buck Hill ...

... hunting insects in the long grass and scrub.

There was also a pair of Long-Tailed Tits nesting in a gorse bush ...

... and more at the foot of the hill, where they are nesting near the bridge.

The yellow blossom of the cornel cherry tree in the Rose Garden attracted a Robin ...

... and a Blue Tit. (The tree isn't actually a cherry, it's a kind of dogwood, Cornus mas.)

One of the Coal Tits waited in the next tree.

A Rose-Ringed Parakeet ate cherry blossom in the Rose Garden -- or rather it picked a flower, chewed it for a moment to squeeze out a bit of nectar, discarded it, and moved on to the next flower. They do the same with the sweet sap in leaf buds. In this wasteful way a few of these destructive birds can wreck a whole tree.

More usefully, a Honeybee browsed on the nectar. This one is a drone, not collecting pollen, but they still pollinate plants by transferring it as they around from flower to flower.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good picture of a Wren, which I missed as it dashed into a bush and disappeared.

A Coal Tit at Mount Gate was dwarfed by the big leaves of a Magnolia grandiflora.

One of the Robins came out on the railings.

A pair of Magpies encouraged each other to climb down a branch to bathe in the Long Water.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was out on a branch.

On the pond, the Egyptian Geese now have nine goslings. I'm certain there were only eight yesterday.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull was still on the Serpentine, though the other dominant one at the landing stage has already left for his breeding ground.

In the sunshine its head looked far from black. The new scientific name of the species is Chroicocephalus ridibundus, 'the leather-headed one that laughs a lot', which is pedantic but correct as that is a much better description of the colour.

A young Grey Heron in the upper nest was ranging around and flapping, looking old and tatty.

One of the herons from the west nest was down on a basket.

Since the pair were fussing around with something in the bottom of the nest yesterday, it's possible that the other heron is already sitting, out of sight unless it raises its head. But it doesn't do to get your hopes up with this hesitant couple.

New Egyptian goslings

A pair of Egyptian Geese on the Round Pond have brought out eight new goslings. They are attracting a crowd of human visitors but the parents are used to that and don't worry.

The Black Swan was touting for food on the edge of the Serpentine, with several Mute Swans. There was a good deal of pushing and chasing.

A young Mute Swan on the Long Water picked at the Coots' nest on the post at Peter Pan, probably looking for snails which swans are very keen on. The Coots were furious, but there was not much they can do against the huge intruder.

The dead iris leaves in the planters in the Italian Garden have been cut down, disturbing the local pair of Coots which have now started building a new nest in a different place.

There is still a little group of Shoveller drakes on the Long Water long after the others have left.

An Egyptian Goose stood on top of the Little Owls' tree at the Round Pond. I don't think they have ever tried to nest in this tree, as there are no side entrances to the hollow interior large enough for them to get in.

The owls themselves were both out enjoying the sunshine in the horse chestnut trees, the female to the north ...

... and the male to the east.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker looked for insects in the bark of a tree on the Parade Ground.

There is usually a pair of Jays near the Serpentine Gallery, and probably they will nest here. They usually build twig nests like Magpies, but occasionally use tree holes like Jackdaws.

A Blackbird dug for larvae in the Dell ...

... where a Coal Tit was waiting in the corkscrew hazel for me to put some pine nuts on the railings for it.

A Coal Tit followed me around the Rose Garden, taking pine nuts and flying away to cache them in cracks in the bark of trees.

A Blue Tit ate a pine nut on the twig.

A Robin waited in the bushes.

Long-Tailed Tits are nesting at the northwest corner of the bridge, and four can be seen here. There are probably two nests, but these sociable birds will help their relatives with raising young if they have lost a nest of their own.

A young Grey Heron in the nest at the east end of the island was flapping its big new wings. They haven't started climbing out of their nest yet. When they do, hopping from one branch to another teaches them how to fly.

The herons in the west nest were fussing around busily. They look as if they were really starting to nest, but we've seen lots of false starts with this pair.

Spring is really here

On the first day of March spring is gathering pace. A Blackbird was singing in the Flower Walk, and you can hear a Coal Tit singing in the background.

The Robins at Mount Gate are now properly paired up ...

... and the ones in the Rose Garden not far behind.

Both the Coal Tits in the Rose Garden came to collect pine nuts ...

... and so did the pair at Mount Gate.

There was a Song Thrush here too.

A Great Tit perched in a paperbush in the Dell ...

... where a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was working over the flowers.

The usual male Chaffinch plonked himself down in the grass in front of me as I was going up to the Round Pond ...

... where the female Little Owl was sunning herself on a branch.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks tower by himself.

A Green Woodpecker called from a tree on Buck Hill.

Feral Pigeons like to socialise and bathe on fallen kerb blocks at the Peter Pan waterfront.

The turf laying people tried using toy windmills last year to scare the Carrion Crows and prevent them from tearing up the new turf. These had no effect. But they've now tried everything else they could think of, so it's back to the windmills.

The Grey Heron pair in the nest at the west end of the island were together again. But quite likely this on-off attempt at nesting will go on for months.

The young heron at the Henry Moore sculpture was standing just behind the fence, shamelessly begging from passers by. People have been feed it and it's now throughly spoilt.

Great Crested Grebes displayed on the Long Water, where there are now two pairs.

Last but far from least, the Black Swan is back. He was on the Serpentine. I'm as sure as I can be that this is the same one we had up to the end of last November, when the left and no one could find where he had gone.