May blossom, birds and architecture - Battersea Park and the Thames

During the first week in May, my camera and I went for a walk in Battersea Park.  Unfortunately, this time we were unlucky with wildlife spotting.  There were only a few of the usual suspects around.

A heron was clinging for dear life onto a set of railings.

A mallard drake was lurking near the edge of the lake.

A female mallard was doing the same.

Luckily, however, there were lovely blossoms on the trees.  Below are a couple of Jacaranda trees that blend into one and looked absolutely wonderful.  The photograph does not justice at all to the amazing sight of these trees in full bloom.

On the path near the lake was this shrub covered with white blossoms.  Unfortunately, I do not know what it is called.  It looked very pretty in the sunshine.

The wildlife situation was so bad that I was reduced to taking this photo of a carrion crow sitting on a branch by the river Thames.  In the background is Chelsea Bridge and the tower of the water pumping station across the river in Pimlico/Victoria.

This time I went to investigate the new area that is now open in front of Battersea Power Station.  There were a couple of mallards standing on the wall opposite the water pumping station.  I think that they were waiting for a ferry to come and pick them up!

I loved the back view of their heads.  Here is the female mallard.

What a great iridescent green head this mallard drake has.

A huge man-made bird flew over the new glass greenhouse flats next to Battersea Power Station.

The new pink Nova building in Victoria can be seen at the right-hand side of the photograph below.

Here is a view of the very tall tower in Vauxhall, with the amazingly-shaped buildings behind.

Across the river, in Pimlico, fancy trees are painted at the top of this block of flats.

I crossed over Chelsea Bridge and walked along the other side of the river.  Below is a photograph of Battersea Power Station and the horrible new flats next to it.

There a lots of trees along the side of the river and I liked the view of the Power Station seen through the over-hanging branches.

A very disappointing day for wildlife - but good for Spring blossoms and architecture!

Evening wildlife walk in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

At the beginning of May I went for a walk with friends in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  We met at a gate near Marble Arch at around 6.00 p.m. and I did not think that I would see much wildlife as it was getting late and the sky was very overcast.  I was pleasantly surprised.

On the landing stage by the pedalo boats there was a Grey Heron and a Greylag Goose contemplating how to spend their evening.

In the very green-looking water (reflection from the trees) a Great Crested Grebe was swimming quite close to land.

Another Grey Heron and two gulls were standing on the boatyard roof, which was covered in bird poo.

Mr and Mrs Mallard and four young ducklings were swimming around in the shallow water near the bridge that divides the Serpentine from the Long Water.

We crossed the bridge and, on the other side of the lake, passed some lovely red Horse-chestnut trees.  I loved the colour of their blossom.

On the bank by the Long Water, near to the Peter Pan statue, there was a Mandarin drake taking in the evening air.

Swimming in the lake nearby was a Gadwall drake.

He was accompanied by a female Gadwall.

Not far away, in the branches of a tree, two green Ring-necked Parakeets were canoodling.

Not us!  I've never seen him before!

By the lido, a female Mute swan was just getting ready to sit back down on her nest after having had a wash-and-brush up in the water of the Serpentine.  There were several eggs in her nest and, unfortunately, some stupid person had thrown slices of white bread around the edge.  I don't think she was interested in this revolting food.

From the other side of the nest it could be seen that there were five eggs.

Another Mute swan was trying to sleep in her nest, which was also surrounded by slices of white bread.

Further along the edge of the Serpentine, I came across a couple of Egyptian geese with their five teenage goslings.

The goslings were trying to sleep, but some were trying to peer at me at the same time.

Their mother is very pretty with a very light-coloured head.

Their father was preening his feathers whilst cooling down at the water's edge.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to take photographs of wildlife during the couple of hours I spent walking round the park with my friends.  I thought that by then the birds would all be sleeping.

Birds and squirrels - late April in St. James's Park

My camera and I went for another walk in London's St. James's Park on 30th April.  I was interested yet again in photographing the wildlife in the park and started my walk at the nearest entrance to St. James's Park underground station.  When I got to the bridge across the lake, I turned right and headed in the direction of Trafalgar Square.

On the lake, two Black Swans were practising their synchronised swimming.  They were very good at it.  I must admit that I was surprised to see two Black Swans on this visit as, over the last few years, I have only ever seen one Black Swan on the lake.  Maybe another swan has been added as a companion?

Further along the path I was trying to take an "arty" photograph of a Greylag goose that was standing behind a pretty bunch of cow parsley (or Queen Anne's Lace, as I believe it is called in the USA).

When I got nearer to the goose, I realised that he was standing guard over his partner and their young goslings.

There is a little house at the edge of the lake, not in any photographs this time, and just past it there were several interesting ducks - well interesting for me anyway.

A Ruddy Shelduck was standing underneath a tree.

Two colourful Shelducks were having a chat nearby.

A Common Goldeneye was taking a swim in the lake.

A Grey Heron was standing on the boardwalk that leads to the little gingerbread-style house.  There was some pretty vegetation in the background.

When I rounded the end of the lake, I came across several Greylag geese who had banded together in order to look after their loads of little yellow goslings.  Here they were standing at the edge of the water, behind grass that was full of daisies.

A few of the goslings were standing and sitting on the grass and are so small that they were almost hidden by the daisies.

Danger, in the form of a young Herring Gull, was lurking nearby.  The adult geese started making lots of hissing noises in order to try and get rid of the intruder.

It did not work that well as the gull just went and stood in the shallow water not far away from the goose families.  I did not stay long enough to find out if it managed to grab any lunch for itself.

Round the other side of the lake, in the distance on the bank of the island that is in the centre of the lake, there was a mother Red-crested Pochard with a bunch of little ducklings.  The male Red-Crested Pochards were swimming around in the water in front of the female and her family.

On the bank near me, a couple of Moorhens were having a bad-feather day in the wind.

Here, also, a Northern Pintail drake was having a pruning session.

Not far away there were a couple of Bahama Pintails and a male Tufted duck.

I managed to take a good close-up photograph of a strangely-coloured Mallard drake with a brown body instead of the usual light-coloured one.

It turned out to be a day for seeing a lot of grey squirrels or ,should I say, tree rats.  This one was running around along the branches of a tree.  Here it is just before it jumped onto the ground.

The squirrel is modelling nicely here - wearing a daisy flower on it's head!

It was then joined by a couple of Pigeon pals and is still in modelling pose.

A white Ross's goose was at peering round the base of a large tree.  Was it looking at the Coot on it's nest?

Above, crawling round the tree, was another very agile grey squirrel.  How do they manage to do that?

Below, the white goose appeared to have lost interest in the Coot's nest.

A little further round the lake there was a female Gadwall.

Nearby was her partner - a Gadwall drake.

There was also a female and male Pochard - plus corner photo-bombing black Carrion Crow.

A little further round the lake there was a bed of shrubs and, almost hidden behind the foliage, an adult Coot was feeding it's small Cootlet.

Today the park seemed to be overflowing with grey squirrels.  Here another one is in modelling pose in front of a group of beautiful pink irises.

Back to almost where I began my walk I came across a Starling with it's beak in the grass, probably in the act of pulling out a worm or similar crawling creature.

The flowerbeds at the entrance/exit to the park were full of brightly coloured tulips.  There was movement among the flowers and here, once again was yet another grey squirrel in modelling mode.

The squirrel kept hopping about amongst the flowers, every so often popping it's head up and posing yet again!

I am usually more interested in the ducks and geese, rather than tree rats, but there seemed to be so many today that I could not resist taking photographs of them.

My camera and I had yet another great walk round the lake in the park and we both enjoyed seeing lots of different sorts of wildlife - even the "tree rats".