Birds spotted during January stroll in St. James's Park

On a sunny day towards the end of January my camera and I went for a birding walk in London's St. James's Park.

There we saw:

A Great Tit framed inside a network of twigs

A green Rose-ringed Parakeet with an injury to it's underside

 A Cormorant drying it's wings on the bank of the lake

A Robin perching on the curved top of a railing

A female Blackbird disguising herself amongst the fallen leaves

Two Black Swans looking very cute in the hope that they will be served some lunch by tourists

A shaggy-headed Cormorant

The Cormorant was looking very haughty

A Black Swan showing off it's white under-feathers

A sun-bathing Red-Crested Pochard

A Black Swan with very frilly feathers

The naughty Black Swan was chasing after the Mute Swan cygnets

A scavenging white Ross's Goose

A family group of Ross's geese

A Little Grebe reflected in the lake

Two Bar-headed Geese marching round the lake

Three Pelicans shivering while standing in a row in the shade

Three hungry Pelicans swimming in a row

A Pelican with a fish in it's pouch - the park steward had just thrown fish to the Pelicans

A contented Pelican flashing it's wings in the sunshine

The three Pelicans moved into the sun to warm up

A Red-breasted Goose

Three Red-breasted Geese in a row

Birds and a naughty squirrel in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

During a recent walk with my camera in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, I took photographs of some of the birds that I saw on the lake.

This is a close-up of the top part of a black-headed gull, which has speckled feathers on it's face.

I love this Red-Crested Pochard drake - he has an amazing hair style and great-coloured red eyes and beak.

He was rather a naughty Red-Crested Pochard as he was hanging around this female Mallard.

In fact, there was a three-some going on as she also had a Mallard boyfriend who kept trying to chase off the Red-Crested Pochard.  Here they have become temporary friends as they line up at the edge of the water in order to beg for food from some tourists who were throwing titbits at the ducks that had swum over to them.

 A couple of Mute swans were also hanging around in this area of the lake.

One of the swans stood up and stretched it's majestic wings.

A Cormorant was fishing at the far end of the Long Water, near the fountains at the Italian Garden.  I managed to get a close-up of it when it surfaced for longer than a few seconds.  What a great-coloured eye and I love the pattern of the markings on the body and the splayed tail feathers.

On a raft at the other end of the park, near the Serpentine cafe, a juvenile Mute swan was resting it's head on it's body.

I disturbed it when I stood nearby taking photographs - so it sat up and showed me it's very cute face.

Just before I left the park, I came across white Mallard drake that was having a swim at the end of the Serpentine.

I left the park via the rose garden where I found a tree full of green Rose-Ringed Parakeets, one of which was eating from a bird feeder meant for the small birds that live in the park.  There were two bird feeders on the tree and a very, very naughty grey squirrel was doing acrobatics by hanging upside-down with it's tail wrapped round one of the tree's branches while holding onto the other feeder with it's front paws and stealing food from it.  Bad squirrel!!!!

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!