Wednesday 1 July 2015

The young Grey Heron on the Serpentine was shouldering aside the gulls to get some food that was being thrown. After looking carefully at the pictures, I think it was Chinese 'varnished' roast duck, those flattened brown shiny things you see hanging up in some restaurants. The herons here certainly get a varied diet.


A Ring-Necked Parakeet was having to content itself with some withered blossoms in the leaf yard. However, it was eating them with enthusiasm, so perhaps they are more tasty than they look.


A Magpie had caught a Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly that was carelessly basking on the edge of the Serpentine. It could never have caught it in the air, unlike a Hobby.


One of the Hobbies, which had been dashing around the plane trees near Physical Energy hunting similar prey, was taking a break.


The Mute Swan family with two cygnets were near the Lido. The father was on the edge of the water looking fierce, in case someone should let a dog into the lake.


The two young Egyptian Geese on the Long Water have survived another night.


Another improbable Egyptian survival: the tiny undersized one on the Serpentine is still swimming around with its much larger siblings. It shows no sign of catching up with them, and if anything the difference is getting greater.


There was a family of Long-Tailed Tits in the Dell. This young one seems to be unusually dark.


I went to the wild area on the Hyde Park side of the West Carriage Drive to look for interesting butterflies. There was little there apart from a lot of Meadow Browns, but there was this.


When I was hastily grabbing the picture I thought it was a Small Skipper butterfly, but it isn't. I thought it was a Chevron moth (Eulithis testata), but Martin tells me that it is a Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata) with unusually pale markings. Both species vary a lot in colour.

3 comments:

  1. I asked a moth buff I know slightly, and he says “Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata)”. Harry G.


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    1. I looked at a picture of a Yellow Shell on an identification page, and decided against it because its markings were much stronger than on the moth I saw. The page said that the colour of the Chevron varies from brown to quite bright yellow. But heaven knows I am no expert on Lepidoptera.

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    2. Hi Ralph
      It's definitely a Yellow Shell, it too varies in the intensity of its colour.
      Martin

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