Geese, ducks, pigeons and gulls in St. James's Park

I am not very good at writing posts after I get back from walks with my camera round London's parks.  I don't know why as I should have time on my hands, but it just seems to disappear into thin air!  I am going to try harder this year to write as soon as I can, but in the meantime I am trying to catch up with walks that I went on towards the end of last year.  This time, in the middle of December 2016, I went on a great walk round the lake in St. James's Park.

Firstly I had an encounter with a Greylag goose, which was giving me the eye!

Then I passed a tree with lovely Autumn colouring with a barren tree in front of it that had a branch covered with pigeons.

Next was an inquisitive Bar-headed goose plodding around in the muddy grass.

Sitting near to the Bar-headed goose was one of its juveniles - the result of a liaison with a Greylag goose, so it is quite strangely coloured.

Next I came across an opera squawking duo of troubadours - two black-headed gulls, taking it in turns to sing loudly and very out of tune!

One gull managed to stop singing for a moment and pose like a model in front of a pile of Autumn leaves.

Further round the lake, near the little Gingerbread house, I came across a large gathering of Red-Crested Pochards, Mallards and Tufted ducks.  They were a little bit too far away to get a good photograph - but here they are anyway.

A couple of Mallards were much nearer the edge of the lake.  Here the drake is preening his feathers while the duck floats nearby.

There is always a lot of wildlife to see in St. James's Park and I always enjoy a walk there.

Parakeets, Magpie, Egyptian Goose and Blackbird in Hyde Park

Just before Christmas I went for a long walk in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  Not long afterwards I wrote posts about the Tufted Ducks and Gadwalls I had seen there.  Now I am adding photographs of some other birds that were around at the time.

Not far from the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens people are always feeding the green Rose-ringed Parakeets.  In the below photograph, one of them is watching out for the next feed and can be seen perching in a bare-branched tree.

In this photograph there are 5 Parakeets, all looking out for the next tourist offering some food to them.

In the same tree there was a Magpie also, no doubt, waiting for some dinner to be offered to it.

On the other side of the lake, near the large Henry Moore statue, there were a pair of Egyptian Geese.  One of them was sleeping, with its back to me - so I didn't bother to take a photo of it.  This one is posing on one leg and has a nice array of feathers showing.

Towards the end of my walk round the park, I went through the rose garden.  There I came across a female blackbird.  Normally I can't manage to get very close to birds, but this one was very obliging and did not immediately fly away.  Perhaps it was hoping I would feed it?  I gather that other photographers go round the park with seeds, biscuits, etc. in order to entice the birds and water fowl near to them for close-up photos.  I will have to try that myself one day!

This is another photograph of the same female blackbird in a slightly different pose.  She was definitely not shy with me!

It was December in the rose garden and there were just a few roses in bloom.  I was actually quite surprised that any of them were flowering at that time of the year, but it had been very mild weather.

 In the rose garden there is a bird feeder that is supposed to be for the use of small birds.  Two naughty green Rose-ringer Parakeets were rocking around on it instead!  Poor tiny birds - the Parakeets probably eat all their food!