Thursday 16 July 2015

The Little Owl family were back in the maple tree near the leaf yard. The young ones were climbing and flying about from one part of the tree to another, calling to their parents. Here they share a brief moment of calm.


Their father was sitting above them, looking down on owlets and humans. I think he really wanted us to go away so that he could fly down and collect some beetles and worms for his family.


Their mother was seen briefly earlier, but was out of sight when I arrived.

The Reed Warblers near the bridge were also very active, with the young ones constantly popping out of the reeds.


One of their parents paused for a moment in the endless task of catching insects for them.


The four Moorhen chicks at Peter Pan were running around under the stone edge of the shore. They wouldn't get together for a group photograph, so here is a picture of one of them, an absurd little ball of black fluff on enormous feet.


The five Coot chicks in the Italian Garden were also doing well. Here are two of them reclining on a comfortable bed of slime while their parents bring food. Life will never be so easy again.


The Great Crested Grebe family at the Serpentine island had got behind the baskets of plants, and all you could see was their mother arriving at intervals with fish and diving under a basket to get to them.


Feral Pigeons love potato chips, and these ones were in luck, gorging themselves for a few minutes before the waiter arrived to shoo them off and clear the table.


The Mute Swan pair were back on the little island in the Long Water, which they had nested on and inexplicably abandoned. It is impossible to tell what these birds are up to.

2 comments:

  1. I was astounded Ralph to find that the lovely Coot family on our nearby village duck pond has now been joined by THREE Little Egrets and TWO herons. It's getting crowded there, and the herons don't seem to like the Egrets joining them for dinner, one little bit!

    I have only seen Egrets on the River Beaulieu before, in the New Forest, so to find them in the Thames Valley was a bit of a surprise.

    I'm finding all your photos of chicks and grebelets most enchanting.

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  2. Little Egrets are now spreading rapidly, which is pleasing unless you are a Coot.

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