Early December birdie walk in St. James's Park, London

On a sunny day in early December my camera and I went for another wonderful birding walk round the lake in London's St. James's Park.  It is very easy for me to get there - I either walk from where I live or just travel for a few stops on the Underground.

Although the sun was shining, it was a very cold day and I had frozen fingers after a few hours in the park.  Here are some of the waterbirds I saw that day.

A couple of white Ross's geese on the bank stand out from the mega-crowd of Coots on the lake.

 A Rosybill fascinated me with it's black head and, obviously, it's rosy bill.

Here two Shelducks stand on the bank with a pigeon ball (it was washing) and Moorhen in the background.

This is another view of a Shelduck.

 Black-and-white Smew drake in the background and Red-crested Pochard in the foreground.

  The sunlight shows up this Red-crested Pochard's red crest.

Here a Red-crested Pochard is liaising with a female Tufted duck.

The sun shone brightly on this Ruddy Shelduck, showing off it's white and green secondary feathers and black tail. 

This Ruddy Shelduck was marching along the small stones at the edge of the lake.

A Barnacle goose was hoping for some food from the park's visitors.

 I don't actually know the name of this breed of duck.  It was much smaller than the other ducks on the lake.

These two Bahama Pintails were preening and cosying-up together.

 I loved this female Hooded Merganser with her scary hair-do.

This photograph shows the amazing difference in size between the tiny Hooded Merganser and a huge Greylag goose.

For me, no walk in the park would be complete without a sighting of at least a few of the eight black swans that now live there.  I think that this is one of the original residents.

These three black swans are definitely part of the five that flew in from Hyde Park some time ago and have made St. James's Park their home.  Note: the swan on the right is trying to bite the neck of the central swan - what a bad bird!

Aggressive black swan in St. James's Park

During my last walk in London's St. James's Park on a sunny day in the middle of  January I easily located some of the group of black swans that now live in the park.

This swan was swimming along just behind a companion, minding it's own business while sailing down a choppy lake.  It was sunny but very windy.

Following it was one of the park's other black swans in aggressive mode.  I believe the chaser was one of the park's original residents and it was following a newcomer that had flown in from neighbouring Hyde Park some months ago.  The swan that is being chased turned it's head a little to see what was going on behind.

This was a swan in angry mode, with lots of lovely ruffled feathers.

The black swan couple spurted ahead in order to get away from their aggressor who eventually gave up the chase, turned around and swam back along the lake in the opposite direction.

Shoveler ducks on the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens.

On Tuesday, a dull grey damp day, I went on an expedition with my camera to the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens.  I went there in order to try and find a white Egyptian goose that was mooching around with the park's usual suspects.  I did find it and hope to post some photographs at a later date - I took so many that it will take me ages in order to sort them out.

After photographing the geese on the grass, I walked to the pond itself where I found a pair of Northern Shoveler ducks.  These are waterbirds with large spatulate bills, which they use in order to shovel up food found in the water.

The male has a dark green head, white breast and chestnut flanks - just like this drake that conveniently swam over to the edge of the pond where I was standing.

Female Shovelers are mottled brown.  A sleepy female was floating in the water not far away from the drake and hiding her huge bill in her feathers.

The male Shoveler swam over to the edge of the pond and stood there having a lovely scratch with his wonderful orange webbed foot. 

The female Shoveler decided to join him and swiftly swam across the pond.

 The pair stood together at the edge of the pond for a while, in front of a preening Mute Swan and a swimming Black-headed gull.

After a short while they both swam off to the centre of the pond.

Injured Goldeneye drake in St. James's Park

Just before Christmas my camera and I went for a walk in St. James's Park on a cold, bright, sunny day.  I took some photographs of water birds on the lake, including ones of a beautiful Goldeneye drake.  When I downloaded them onto my computer I saw that this gorgeous bird was injured, with feathers missing from one side of its body exposing raw skin.  

Poor Goldeneye!

I hope someone that looks after the birds in the park managed to capture it and has taken it to a bird hospital.

Christmas Eve - Toulouse geese in Exeter

This Christmas I went with a group of friends to Exeter and on Christmas Eve, went for a morning walk with some of them.  We went down to the Quay and walked along the River Exe as far as the first bridge, where we crossed over the river and then walked back to the Quay.  At the end of the walk I was sitting with three of my friends outside a cafe overlooking the river.  My coffee had just arrived when I saw a group of white domestic geese on the river, so I grabbed my camera and left my coffee to go cold while I took some photos.

There were also some geese with brown feathers and, when I got back home after Christmas, I looked them up on the internet.  I believe that they were Toulouse geese.

This pair look very snooty - swimming along with their beaks in the air.

 Before lunch on Christmas Day I went back down to the river with a friend.  This time the geese were having a Christmas party on the towpath.  They were honking and honking and honking and honking!

This pair looked like a courting couple.  They were getting quite friendly and, maybe, exchanging Christmas kisses.  Where's the mistletoe?

Their friends were giving admiring glances to the river.

Other friends were more keen on the grassy bank.

Here are two goose-stepping white geese!

I love the pose of this big fat goose-stepping goose.  I thought he looked like a vicar getting ready to read the Christmas sermon.

The congregation came waddling along the towpath.

Some of the geese then decided to go for a swim.

This goose was not sure what I was up to, crouching down by it.  It gave me the evil eye before waddling off to join its friends in the water.

I got another unfriendly stare from this big white goose.  I have never seen this type of goose before, so I was quite thrilled.  It made a nice change from the hundreds of mute swans that are found on the river Exe in Exeter.

Eventually most of the gang jumped into the river and swam off - probably heading somewhere exciting for Christmas lunch.