Heron walk in Battersea Park - May 22nd

I last went for a walk in Battersea Park at the beginning of May and, unfortunately, it was rather lacking any interesting wildlife.  A sucker for punishment, my camera took me for another walk there towards the end of May and, this time, there was even less wildlife than before - even lacking most of the usual suspects (ducks, geese and swans).  However, I did see several herons.

This grey heron was standing on the railings and contemplating the beauty of the yellow water irises on the sloping bank at the side of the lake.

This is another view of the same heron that was taken just round the corner from the last shot.  There were also lots of dangling grasses that were blowing around in the wind for the heron to also stare at.

I came across another grey heron further around the lake.  This one was paddling in the water near one of the paths that edge the lake.  It was being kept company by several coots.

Grey herons, though large, seem to be very nervous birds.  It let me get quite near to it but, when I tried to get ever nearer, it decided it was time to vamoose.  I just managed to get a photograph of the heron flying off to another part of the lake, leaving it's three coot pals to follow it in the water.  What an enormous wing span it has!

A little further into the park, in a secluded part of the lake, there was another grey heron perched on an interestingly-shaped branch.  Green algae had already begun to form on the surface of the lake.

As a change from herons, a mallard couple and their shadows were meandering along one of the lakeside paths.

I took the least amount of photographs on this walk than I had ever done during any of my past walks in London's parks.  However, during my next walk in Battersea Park in June, the wildlife count had definitely gone up and there were also cute ducklings and a lone cygnet to keep my camera happy.

More cygnets and other water birds - mid-May in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

This is a continuation from my previous post in order to show more photographs of wildlife that were taken during my walk round the lake in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens on 21st May.

I was lucky enough to see some beautiful Red-crested Pochards.

There were three small Eygptian goslings feeding at the edge of the water.

A parent Egyptian goose was nearby and was keeping a beady eye on the babies.

A mute swan in a bad mood scurried across the surface of the lake.

A mother mute swan was hiding with her small cygnets in a place that was almost impossible to photograph.  I had to squeeze behind a bench and try to get the camera above or between a spiky metal fence.  I guess that there was a lot of suitable food for the cygnets under the shrubbery by the bank.

After I had given up with the struggle to photograph the five cygnets that were hidden under the tree, mum swan decided to come out from her hidden position.  Trust one of the cygnets not to be paying attention to the direction that the rest of the family was taking!

Not far away, near the Peter Pan statue, a couple of Gadwalls were relaxing in the water.

Nearby, on one of the posts, a Mandarin drake was practising his yoga positions.

What a handsome model he makes!

On the other side of the lake there was a Coot chick in the most disgusting nest I have seen.  Why do people throw all their plastic rubbish into the water?  It is an absolute disgrace.

A little further along the Serpentine I came across a stand-off between a coot and a magpie.  The preening mute swan was paying no attention to the squabbling birds.

Further along there was another swan family.  Here is mum with four cute little fluffy cygnets.

I like the way that the cygnets were clustered round the back end of mum while they were swimming. 

This is cute over-load - three sweet little fluffy cygnets in a row.

After I had been standing by the mother swan and cygnets for a little while, mum suddenly took off and went thundering along the Serpentine leaving a coot in charge of her cygnets!

A short while later she came back to them.  Then dad turned up.  I think she had gone to tell him that he needed to help out with the child care!

Back on the other side of the Serpentine, I took a few more photos of the Canada goose with the interesting white leucistic face.

On my way out of the park I saw some lovely white arum lilies in the Dell.

There were more foxgloves in the formal beds near the rose garden.  These were filled with tall white foxgloves and shorter mauve flowers.

This bush was covered with pretty pink roses.

There were some lovely tall round white aliums.

The flower heads obviously attract bees.  I think this may be a small bee rather than a wasp.

This alium is covered with several large bees as well as a smaller one.

Once again I had a great walk in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, during which I took hundreds of photographs.

Cygnets, goslings and other wildlife - late May in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

I visited Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens again on 21st May.  My camera felt in need of some fresh air, so we went for another long walk around the lakes.

I first encountered this female coot, sitting comfortably on a nest of twigs and green weed.  I expect it smelt terrible, but I doubt if the coot noticed that.

Then, in the distance, I saw this female mute swan with her five cygnets swimming around on the Long Water in Kensington Gardens.

Here she is again against a backdrop of green reeds.  This was in a section of the Long Water between the bridge that divides Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park.  Again the family was a fair distance away from me, so impossible to get a close photograph.

There is a row of posts across the lake and these were topped with a row of wall-to-wall gulls - mainly young herring gulls.  There was a larger gull, which I think maybe a lesser-backed gull, causing trouble in the section of the posts where an unfortunate pair of coots had stupidly decided to build a nest.  The lesser-back has removed a juvenile herring gull from the top of the post and it can be seen flying off.

The gulls were trying to get at the coot's nest to see if there were any young (or dinner) on it yet.  The coots were understandably rather concerned about this and both of them were standing on the nest and squawking at the gulls.

A little later I saw the mute swan and her five cygnets sailing past the fallen tree on the Long Water.

When I got as far as the Serpentine in Hyde Park, I was greeted by a Great Crested Grebe - one of my favourite water birds.

A leucistic female mallard with very light beige feathers was modelling on the path at the side of the lake.

There was a wood pigeon standing under this rather lovely maroon shrub at the top of the waterfall above the Dell.  I think the shrub is an Acer, but hope someone will correct me if it is not.

The wood pigeon then posed artistically in front of the rocks, daisies and lovely spiky green plant.

There were still some beautiful foxgloves growing on the patch of land just past the bridge above the Dell.  I love foxgloves!

I was now on the other side of the Serpentine, not far away from the cafe, when I saw this leucistic Canada goose with an unusual white face.

Is this a mirror image?  There were two tiny cute fluffy cygnets staring at one another on the lake.

In fact, the family comprised of five cute fluffy little cygnets.

The female mute swan was being very protective of her brood and made a lunge at this greylag goose.  It did not need to be told twice and took off very quickly, flapping it's huge wings.

Then mum and the five cygnets sailed serenely along the lake.

This is a close-up of one of the fluffy cygnets having a bit of shut-eye after all the excitement of the day.

There was a pair of greylag geese on the grass near the lake.  They had five young goslings in tow.

It was obviously hard work checking for danger near the goslings.  Here one of the parents has a corkscrew neck while searching all round for any hidden predators.

Oblivious of any potential danger, the cute fluff-balls continued searching for food in the grass.

Across the path, on the Serpentine, a family of Canada geese sailed past.  Here are mum and dad with their five yellow goslings.

What cuties this lot are!!

I saw so much wildlife on this walk round the park that I have, so far, only managed to download half my selected photographs to my blog.  I will try to post the others in the very near future.