Friday 14 September 2012


Geese have reoccupied the Olympic enclosure as the debris is gradually cleared. There is still enough grass -- high quality sports turf laid specially -- to interest them. But they have to fly in and out, because the area is still enclosed by a high fence.


The Great Crested Grebes from the bottom end of the Serpentine had brought their chick all the way up to the Bluebird Boats jetty, 200 yards from the nest. This is a good fishing spot because the fish like to shelter under the jetty and the moored boats. But there is no shelter from a hungry grebe with a chick to feed.


The young Carrion Crow with white wing feathers was at the Vista with the rest of the family, two adults and two young birds -- the other young one is pure black. The feathers are all the same, white with black tips, an odd-looking colour scheme on a crow. Often these birds have a few white or grey feathers, but usually in apparently random places, not in a neat, symmetrical row.


However, this pattern is not unique. Here is a similar crow from Devon, photographed in 2007.

There was no shortage of Cormorants on the Long Water. There were some more on the Serpentine. Word is getting around that the fish in the lake are now large enough to be worth the detour.

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