Mute Swan with four baby cygnets - St. James's Park

Since lockdown began in March and I been visiting my local parks for exercise, taking my camera along for company and in order to photograph the wildlife I have encountered.  In that time I have taken many photographs, but have not got round to putting them on my blog.

Tonight I decided I would do something about it - but it would be only one photograph.

This lovely female Mute Swan was with her four baby cygnets and was looking after them with the help of her mate, who was constantly nearby.  He was just not in my vision at this particular time.

The photograph was taken during my walk round the lake in St. James's Park, London, on Sunday, 28th June 2020.

Stand-off between dad Black Swan and soon-to-be dad Mute Swan in St. James's Park

About a week ago I went to St. James's Park to see what was happening with a pair of Black Swans that had a single cygnet.  Last time I saw them, both male and female swans were with their cygnet on newly-turfed grass near the children's play area.  This time only the female swan was there.  She seemed a bit unsettled and lonely and she kept making little "peep, peep" sounds.  I think that she was missing her mate.

Eventually she took to the water, followed by the cygnet.

I followed them round the lake and could see, in the distance, an aggressive male Mute Swan heading towards the little island in the centre of the lake.

The female Black Swan had found her mate, but trouble was brewing and the family had to quickly get onto the little island.

The Mute Swan had ruffled feathers and was hissing at the Black Swans, which were by now hiding in the shrubbery with their cygnet.

I wandered a little further round the lake and saw that the male Mute Swan's mate was sitting on a nest not far away from where the Black Swans were hiding on the island.

The Mute Swan was still on the water and the Black Swan was bravely standing there in front of him.

They both stayed in position for some time - with the Mute Swan swimming off every so often and then very quickly returning for a stand-off with the Black Swan.  He retreated into the shrubbery, but very quickly returned for another face-off!

He must have got fed up with the situation as he then started walking round the edge of the island, drawing himself up to his full height in a very intimidating way.

Black Swans are much smaller than Mute Swans, so he made sure to stay on land so that he would appear to be much larger!

Eventually the Mute Swan gave up and swam off - giving the male Black Swan an opportunity to swim off.  The cygnet had appeared out of the bushes, but stayed at the edge of the island waiting for mum to appear.

She was obviously still very wary of the Mute Swan and it took her some time to tentatively come out of hiding.

Somehow she did not seem to know where her mate had gone and, stupidly, swam backwards and forwards in the water near the island.

Once again, the aggressive Mute Swan was heading in her direction!

So mum and baby once again had to climb onto the island and hide in the shrubbery!

I could not stay any longer to see how long it would be before she managed to escape again and headed off in the direction I had come.  Sure enough, the male Black Swan was standing on the newly-turfed area where I had first seen the family.  I hope he went back to the little island and rescued his mate and their cygnet!

Birds and bridges - Battersea Park and the Thames - January 2019

An early January walk in Battersea Park with my camera on a vey overcast day resulted in the following photographs:

A male blackbird hopping around in the dead leaves at the base of a bare-branched tree

Two male Tufted ducks swimming around in the lake

A pair of Northern Shoveler ducks - with the female in head-bobbing mode

A tall bare-branched tree at the edge of the lake with Cormorants sitting in the branches

There was a heron towards the top of another nearby tall tree

Gulls, swans and ducks headed towards the footpath in order to be fed by a small group of people that had gathered there.  Chimneys and cranes belonging to Battersea Power Station can be seen behind the modern flats in the background.

A Heron was perching on iron railings at the edge of the lake and more Cormorants or Herons were perching at the top of another tall tree in the distance.

A Magpie showed me his/her beautiful blue feathers as I walked behind along the gravel path.

Where have all the people gone?  It was a very dull day and hardly anyone was in the park.

Catkins hung from one of the trees at the edge of the lake.

A Magpie perched for a moment on the branch of a Jacaranda tree.

A heron with a twig in it's beak flew up above it's nest at the top of the Heronry.

There were several nests in the Heronry and this one was occupied by a pair of Herons.

Heron's nests at the top of a couple of tall trees at the edge of the lake.

Two ducks took off from the lake and flew across the colourless sky.

At the end of my walk round the lake, I walked along the Thames at the edge of Battersea Park.  The lights were by then shining on Battersea Bridge.

Chelsea Bridge was also lit up.  The Shard was sticking out of the top of the tall building on the left.

A red London bus crossed Chelsea Bridge in front of the Shard.

The railway bridge and Vauxhall Tower could be seen from the other side of Chelsea Bridge.  The new American Embassy, with lights blazing, is on the right-hand side of the photograph.

I had a lovely walk around the lake in Battersea Park and along the nearby Thames path, but I would have preferred a brighter day weather-wise!

Common Terns and their chicks on tern rafts at Greenwich Ecology Park, London

As we are currently experiencing an unusual heatwave in the UK, I am not feeling much like wandering around in the hot sun with a heavyish camera and am, therefore, confined to barracks.  So, as I am guilty of not writing a blog for ages, I thought I would now get round to adding photographs of my new favourite birds - Common Terns - in my new favourite place - North Greenwich Ecology Park.  This is a very tiny nature reserve on the Greenwich Peninsular in London and very near to the O2 centre and the Emirates cable car that goes over the river Thames. 

I visited the park on a few occasions from the middle to end of June.  At the time there were plenty of adults and their chicks on several tern rafts that were floating in the middle of the lake.

From the bird hide that is nearest to the entrance to the park I saw this adult tern standing in front of a shelter on a small raft that was covered with pebbles.

There was another, much larger raft, with wooden edges and also with the central part covered with pebbles.  In this photograph there are two adult terns standing near the edge of the raft, with a chick walking down a sloping plank that leads to the water.

The adult birds were flying out of the park and fishing in the river Thames - bringing back small fish to feed both chicks and the adults that remained on the raft in order to look after the babies.  This tern was perched on the edge of the raft and has a poor little fish in it's beak.

The birds were constantly flying out and back in to the park.  Here an adult has just landed and has a fish in it"s beak ready to feed the chick that is standing on the pebbles in front of it.  There are 3 other hungry chicks on the left-hand side of the raft.

There was an adult tern with open beak on the 1st floor of the raft and several adults and chicks on the ground floor.

Here, the chick on the left with wide open beak was begging for food from the nearby adult.

A tern was just flying in with another fish-of-the-day while two companions were singing a duet on the lst floor of the raft.

It was more-or-less non-stop fish delivery during the time I was watching the birds.  Here, the bird with raised wings was feeding a juvenile while the other chicks were impatiently waiting for more to eat.

Yet another fish supplier has just landed on the edge of the raft.

A hard-working tern was just coming in to land, while another adult bird was sheltering in the shade under the raised part of the raft.  There were a lot of lovely white water lilies near the edge of the bank on the other side of the lake.

All the photos above were taken using a long zoom lens on my camera.  This was taken using a short zoom and shows the whole of the tern raft, plus a bird leaving the raft (just in front of the raised wooden bars) and a bird flying in (towards the top left of the photo and in front of the reeds, shrubs and grass on the far bank of the lake.

This is a view from the window of the hide with reeds in front of the window, water lilies at the edge of the lake and the tern raft in the middle of the lake.

There was a second bird hide at the other end of the lake, but there were a lot of tall reeds and flowers in front of the windows so the lake could not be seen.  However, in a gap between the foliage, I could see a tern with a fish in it's beak standing on top of the upright pole.  Obviously, there was a raft here that was much nearer to the hide, but the rest of it was out of view.

A tern stood facing forwards on the horizontal beam at the top of the raft.  I think that this is a very amusing pose!

Next time I visit the Ecology Park I expect that all the juvenile terns will have fledged and the rafts will be empty.  I must remember to definitely go back there again next year!