Tuesday 10 April 2018

The Mute Swan nesting on the island in the Long Water got off her eggs for a moment to feed and wash. They were contemplated by a Moorhen, which fled when the swan returned.


The swans at the Lido now have three eggs. The female hasn't yet started incubating them.


The Egyptian Geese at the Henry Moore sculpture still had three goslings when I went by this morning.


The Great Crested Grebes are still in place on the stolen Coot nest on the Serpentine island. I am pretty sure that they already have eggs.


A grebe at the Lido  finished preening and stretched its wings to settle the feathers.


Another of the orange plastic buoys on the edge of the swimming area has attracted a pair of Coots to nest there.


One of the Coots took a moment off to peck at a floating apple. It didn't seem to find it tasty, and left it.


I think the Coot was interested in the apple because it was red -- their favourite colour -- not because it was it was edible. The Rose-Ringed Parakeets that people feed with apples much prefer red ones to green ones.

The Moorhen on the Dell restaurant terrace looked down from her nest in the hawthorn tree, whose spiky twigs must be a useful protection against predators.


The Robin in the Rose Garden that I photographed yesterday singing from a thorny rose bush had chosen a more comfortable place today.


A  Blackbird beside the Long Water seized a worm and dashed away into the bushes to eat it.


One of the Coal Tits at the bridge collected several pine nuts from my hand, following me down the path and perching on brambles. They cache seeds in cracks in tree bark.


A Long-Tailed Tit in the Dell paused before flying down to the feeder.


A pair of Jackdaws perched conspicuously on an urn in the Italian Garden so that I would notice them and give them peanuts.


A Magpie picked up grit on the path near the bridge. Having no teeth, birds need grit in their gizzards to grind up their food.


But sauropod dinosaurs, which did have teeth, also used stones for the same purpose, and crocodiles, which have teeth in a big way, still do.

The female Little Owl at the leaf yard looked down from the chestnut tree.


Pretty pink cherry blossom pleases visitors to the park, but to a Rose-Ringed Parakeet it's lunch.


Many years ago a gardener planted primroses near the bridge, and they still come up every year. Later there will be cowslips too.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely primroses. Spring is pushing through in earnest.

    One can almost *hear* what those two Jackdaws are thinking!

    Grebes' wings are like dragon wings. Something that should not work, but does. Is it official now that the Coots have been evicted from their nest for time being?

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    1. Grebes are like F-104 Starfighters. They have small, heavily loaded wings and must travel at high speed to stay in the air. Their takeoffs are desperate affairs largely powered by their feet, and their descents are no more than crashes into the water.

      It's never possible to say that the Coots won't try to take their nest back. However, I haven't seen any of them hanging around menacingly for a few days.

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