Monday 16 September 2013

More Shovellers have arrived, and I could see seven on the Long Water, on the opposite side from Peter Pan.

The Hobbies have not yet gone, as Paul Turner got a glimpse of two of them this morning.

The daily visit to the rowan trees at the top of Buck Hill has still not turned up any Mistle Thrushes, but it has produced Song Thrushes; Great, Blue and Long-Tailed Tits, which are there for the bugs, not the berries; Magpies, almost always; and the occasional Carrion Crow. Here one has managed to get a fairly secure grip on the thin branches, though it had to flap from time to time to avoid overbalancing. It ate an entire bunch of berries before flying away.


You don't usually see gulls upside down. This young Lesser Black-Back was having a thorough wash, rolling around and flapping and diving for at least ten minutes.


One of last year's Grey Herons was in the pond in the Italian Gardens that has goldfish in it. It was standing on a crushed bit of wire netting, peering intently through the water weed rather than choosing a place where it could see clearly.


I have seen herons prefer weedy places before. It may be because the bird knows that fish like to lurk under cover. To suppose that the heron does this to avoid being seen by the fish probably attributes a theory of mind to them which they don't have.

At the Serpentine island, one of the eldest Great Crested Grebe chicks was flapping its wings, which are quite well developed and feathered. But it won't be flying for at least another two months.


Another grebe was reading a discouraging notice at the Lido.


I expected it to ignore the sign, but in fact it obediently swam away and started diving somewhere else.

1 comment:

  1. LOVE the grebe reading the 'no diving' sign. hahahah. thanks :-D

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