Sunday 29 June 2014

The unstoppable Coots nesting on the post at Peter Pan have hatched a third brood. Two chicks were intermittently visible. Here the father brings food for one of them.


This nest has got very tall with incessant building over three months. A chick came down to the bottom, and had no difficulty climbing up again. During this time it was at severe risk of being eaten by one of the large gulls which accounted for the two previous two broods, but the number of these has fallen and they spend most of their time on the other side of the bridge.

The Tawny owlets had moved from yesterday's tree to another chestnut tree a few yards off. They were very difficult to see and this poor picture of one of them was the best I could manage.


There were plenty of Meadow Brown butterflies in the long grass nearby.


They insisted on folding their wings while they rested on the stems.

Near the Italian Garden, a Magpie was in a hawthorn tree enthusiastically eating the green berries.


It seemed odd, as the berries are still rock-hard and seemed completely indigestible.

This Great Crested Grebe was preening, and when a feather came loose the bird ate it.


Grebes consume large amounts of feathers, their own and others that they find floating in the water, to wrap up sharp fishbones which might otherwise injure their insides.

The little pool at the top of the waterfall in the Dell is clear again, after being stagnant and smelly when the water filter at the Serpentine outflow became clogged. Here a Blackbird enjoys a bathe in it.

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