Wednesday 29 March 2017

A Herring Gull came out of the enclosure on the island carrying a large egg, evidently stolen from a duck's nest. This is the first sign we've seen this year of any of the ducks breeding -- a pity it had to be announced in this way.


A Long-Tailed Tit had found a peculiarly dense bag-shaped web made by some spider unknown to me, and was struggling with all its might to pull out some strands for its nest


Chaffinches have become quite rare in the park now. This male was in the Rose Garden.


The usual Dunnock was there, looking for bugs under a bench. She now expects to be fed.


So, of course, do the Coal Tits in the shrubbery at the southwest corner of the bridge.


The male of the pair of Goldcrests here was singing in a holly tree.


On the other side of the path, a Chiffchaff was also singing from the top of a tree, where it looked a bit windblown.


Despite the chilly wind, there were enough diners on the terrace of the Dell restaurant to bring the resident Grey Heron over to look for scraps.


The Coot nesting near the bridge is so used to large Cormorants diving around its nest that it took no notice at all of a Great Crested Grebe.


The young Egyptian Geese at the Round Pond are growing well.


Blondie's family are still quite small, and were sheltering from the wind under her wing. The fifth one was round the other side.


The mother of the family near the Lido was showing off her iridescent secondary feathers, purple when seen from one direction, green from another.


The strange pale Mallard is not iridescent at all, either on his head or on his secondaries. He was at the Vista, looking like an old sepia photograph.


All the Mandarins have now moved from the Long Water to the Serpentine, for some unknown reason. Three of the drakes were inside the netting east of the Lido.


There were Coots fighting all over the lake. They get even more aggressive in spring.


Near the Albert Memorial there was an unusual glimpse of the male Little Owl looking out of the pair's hole -- we nearly always see the female here. It's good to see that the intruding Mallards haven't pushed them out.


The owl in the lime tree near the Henry Moore sculpture was the usual female. I haven't seen the male for some time.

8 comments:

  1. One shudders to think of the size of the spider that wove such a web... I'm an arachnophobe through and through. Brrr.

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    1. I am the same about spiders - especially after a False Widow decided to have a nest on my windowsill 2 years ago.
      Would be interesting to find out what spider it is though

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    2. Hoping a spider maven will comment.

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    3. There was a youtube video a while ago in which an American father filmed how a bumblebee had helped another bumblebee escape from a spider web in his windowsill. Some helpful youtube commenter mentioned, quite casually, that he ought to be quite concerned, given that he apparently was unaware w that the spider web that was in his windowsill belonged to a bona fide Black Widow. Nightmares, I tell you.

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    4. Compared to which, British spiders are a fairly anodyne lot.

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  2. Hello,it may be a wasp spiders web..... Stephen bushell..

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    1. Thanks very much. Someone mentioned a wasp spider last year -- I think it was David Element. I'll ask him. The web is in the shrubbery between the statue of Big Bird and the bridge, about halfway along, at head height and about ten feet in from the fence.

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  3. Hello ralph, i am very pleased that your lovely blog is still going strong... I am a long way from london,but still look most days.. I hope that my suggestion (actually my uncle's ( a former biology teacher) and a huge influence on my love of nature..) turns out to be correct !!!!.....best wishes.

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