While standing on a bridge by the road in the Inner Circle near Marylebone, I saw this Great Crested Grebe - one of my favourite birds. It hung around for a little while, diving for food, before swimming off under the bridge and to part of the waterway that is for private bird-use only.
Further along the path in the park, under a tree near the footbridge that goes over the lake near the Baker Street entrance to the park, I discovered a snoozing Great Crested Grebe on a nest.
On the grass near the large main lake there was an unhappy goose-stepping Canada geese. It hissed loudly at the people nearby and was clearly annoyed that it was not being given any food.
There were people having lunch on a bench nearby. A mute swan took matters into it's own beak and stole a sandwich that was wrapped up in cling-film! It pecked through the wrapping, which it tried to eat. Thankfully the screaming owner of the sandwich managed to kick the cling-film out of the swan's way before it made a more persistent effort to eat it. Clear of it's wrapping, the sandwich fell apart and was then quickly devoured by the swan before the neighbouring pigeon got too close!
A black-headed gull was parading about in the sunshine at the edge of the lake.
Two aggressive-looking mute swans sailed along the water, disturbing a couple of black-headed gulls that were in their way.
They crossed paths with one another.
Then, in a very synchronised manner, they majestically sailed off across the lake.
I walked round the lake, over a few more bridges, to the area of the park that holds the Waterfowl Collection. There, on the grassy bank, I discovered a pair of Mandarin ducks - gloriously multi-coloured male and pretty brown female.
They were located in front of some reeds that were waving around in the breeze and were resting in the shade of a large tree. Needless to say, though I tried to keep as still as possible and not make too much noise, they were very suspicious of the sounds that my camera was making and eventually left the area and swam across the water to the little island in the middle of the lake.
I then went to the small pond that is in the Inner Circle at Regent's Park and sat down for a while on a bench in the sun. There were two magpies on the railings and grass in front of me. Unusually, they did not seem to mind my presence (maybe they were juveniles) and did not hop off when I stood up and got closer to them.
They were moving around quite a lot. One of them sat on the railings in front of the reeds.
Then it marched around on the grass. Until now, I did not realise what lovely fluffy white feathers a magpie has on it's chest.
This is a photograph of one of the magpies with a shadow selfie of the photographer!
When I returned to the Little Grebe's nest by the footbridge in the middle of the lake, I took some more photographs. Here a much larger Greylag goose is sailing along in front of the nest.
The Great Crested Grebe has it's beak open in this photograph. Maybe it is calling out for it's mate to come back and take over egg-sitting duty?
There was a heron on the grass in front of the nearby footbridge across the lake.
This is the view of willow trees that line the narrow lake near the footbridge. The Great Crested Grebe's nest is on the water under the branches of the right-hand willow on the opposite bank.
As I was sitting on the bench having a rest after my long walk round the park, I noticed a lot of crows flying around. They landed in one of the tall bare-branched trees behind the Great Crested Grebe's willow.
No comments:
Post a Comment