Black-necked Grebe at Walthamstow Wetlands

 At the beginning of October my camera took me to Walthamstow Wetlands in the hope of seeing the Black-necked Grebe that had recently been spotted on one of the reservoirs.  We were unlucky during a previous visit a couple of weeks earlier, but this time we struck the jackpot!

The Grebe was on a fishing trip and I ended up following it along almost the whole length of the reservoir and managed to take several photographs when it was above water.  Fortunately, it was within reasonable distance for the range of my camera's zoom lens.

Eventually it turned tail and swam off to the other side of the reservoir - and out of my view!

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.

April wildlife in Regent's Park

On a sunny day towards the end of April my camera took me on another walk in a London park.  This time it was a visit to Regent's Park.  I began my walk along the narrow part of the lake where lots of herons can usually be found.  In fact the first bird that I encountered was a grey heron that was standing among the daisies on the grass.

It opened it's beak in amazement when it saw me.

Then it turned it's back on me.  A group of people were photographing a model nearby and, suddenly, one of the girls decided to creep up on the heron and take photos of it on her camera phone.  She's behind you!!  Understandably it got very annoyed with the attention and flew away.

A little further along the lake there were some juvenile Egyptian goslings.  This one was waddling along the path at the edge of the water.  It now looks very Egyptian goose-like but with very scraggy-looking fluff and feathers.

It's siblings were cooling off by lounging around with their feet in the water.

They then decided that it was bath-time and had lots of fun splashing around in the cool lake water.

I walked all round the narrow lake that is on one side of the park, crossed back across the bridge and began my walk round the main lake where I came across three very young Egyptian goslings.

A little further along the lake I came across three more young Egyptian goslings that were standing near a daisy-covered patch of grass.

Floating along on the lake was a Pochard drake

and his female companion.

Nearby, on the bank, was a starling with amazing feathers and a bright yellow beak.

A grey heron was goose-stepping along the edge of the water near a Canada goose and some Coots.

This part of the lake was covered with Herring gulls - here a juvenile is either taking off or has just landed.

In the centre of the park there is an area of the lake that is reserved for the park's collection of waterfowl.  There is a bridge over the lake at the beginning of this area and is where the following photographs were taken - so they are mainly looking down at the birds.

Here is a male Eider and a female Eider duck companion.

A handsome Northern Pintail drake.

A male Ringed Teal.

On the grass at the side of the lake there was a white Ross's goose.

Here is a Northern Pintail drake with his female companion.

At the top of the photograph is a male Smew.  I think that the other duck is a female Wigeon, but I am not absolutely positive.

Here there are two Fulvous Whistling ducks at the front of the photograph.  I don't know what brand of duck is swimming along at the back of the photo - can someone please enlighten me?

This one is a male European Goldeneye.

Here are two White-faced Whistling ducks.  I love the reflections in the water in this picture.

Further along the lake, three coots were fighting - watched in disbelief by a Goldeneye drake.

This is a Chestnut Teal drake.

This is a female Hooded Merganser.

In this photograph she is having a bath.

At the top of the photograph is a female Hooded Merganser, followed by a European Goldeneye drake.  Then in the centre is a Bufflehead drake (I think!) and on the right is a Hooded Merganser drake.  I must admit that it is driving me mad trying to identify some of these ducks!

Back to more familiar territory!  Here, early in the rose garden, a Mallard drake is admiring the rose bed and wondering when the wonderful roses will be out!

On the pond in the Inner Circle there was a beautiful black swan sailing along in water filled with reflections.

A black swan couple live here and they are both admiring their reflections in the water.

Standing under a tree by the pond was a wonderfully-feathered and coloured Mandarin drake.

 I left the Inner Circle pond and wandered back to the park's main lake.  Here, on the top of a willow tree, there was a large nest that contained an adult grey heron and a juvenile heron.  I was lucky that my camera has got a fairly decent zoom on it as you could not actually see what was in the nest without having a pair of binoculars (which, of course, I had left at home).

After I had walked round the rest of the main lake and crossed the bridge from where I began my journey, I was going to head off for Baker Street underground station and home.  However, I looked towards the narrow lake where I had started my walk and saw a Great Crested Grebe swimming along the water.  So I got the camera out again and took some more photographs in the early evening sunshine.

Here the Great Crested Grebe is swimming in front of the much larger Mute swan.

There were reflections from the willow tree in the water and cow parsley on the bank.

A mute swan makes it's way along the lake.

Here a mute swan is taking advantage of a willow leaf feed.

The Great Crested Grebe is under the willow tree on the left while the swan is having an early supper.

A grey squirrel has got a peanut, or similar, in it's mouth.

In this photograph, the tree rat is trying out a very cute pose amongst the pretty cow parsley.

I was glad that I spent some extra time in the park as two Little Grebes also appeared.

In this slightly blurred photograph, one of them has caught something during one of it's dives.

Finally, a Red Crested Pochard swam by through the reflection of a tree trunk in the lake.

As usual, Regent's Park contained lots of great wildlife and I very much enjoyed my afternoon there.