Young fluffy Jay - photograph taken at RSPB Rye Meads nature reserve

I don't seem to get round to writing my blog as much as I would have liked, so have decided in the meantime to try at least to add a favourite bird photograph every so often.

At the end of May last year I went to RSPB Rye Meads nature reserve.  The visit was to try and see the Kingfishers that were nesting there at the time.  I had a long time to wait between the male and female Kingfishers popping out of the nest hole in order to take turns feeding, etc.

I was delighted that, during this waiting time, a gorgeous fluffy young Jay appeared on a Black Willow tree at the other side of the pond.  It stayed there quite a while and I was able to take several photographs of it.  I love it's fluffy feathers and comical face with black eyebrows and moustache!

Fighting Egyptian geese in St. James's Park, London

A week ago, on 24th November, during a great walk with my camera round the lake in London's St. James's Park, I heard a lot of noise.  On investigating the loud squawks and shrieks, I realised that a couple of Egyptian Geese were having a fight in the lake.  A few coots had a bird's eye view of the proceedings!

There was a group of around six Egyptian geese involved, but the other four were on-lookers.  Here another Egyptian, presumably female, is clearly telling the boys off.  They still continued fighting in front of their audience of coots.

She got all agitated and flapped her wings, to no avail.  Now there was a fourth Egyptian goose in the melee, on the right-hand side of the fighting Egyptians.

The two male Egyptian geese just carried on fighting one another.

A lot of squawking and splashing of water was involved.

It looked as though one was trying to drown the other.  The black-headed gull was not impressed!

A female Egyptian goose once more came near to try and stop the fight, but they took no notice of her and carried on.

In the photograph below, one Egyptian goose has its beak firmly clamped onto the body of its foe, just below the neck.  The third goose was clearly bothered by all this fighting and has its wings outstretched in order to get away from the mayhem more quickly.

Eventually the two fighting Egyptian geese ended up on land, one still firmly attached to the other, disrupting the pigeons.

The loser managed to escape from the other's clutches and waddled off in high dudgeon.  Meanwhile, the victor and his girlfriend celebrated by squawking in unison.

Then they happily hot-footed it back to the water's edge and the coots were, once again, happy to have a bit of peace and quiet.

Geese, ducks, pigeons and gulls in St. James's Park

I am not very good at writing posts after I get back from walks with my camera round London's parks.  I don't know why as I should have time on my hands, but it just seems to disappear into thin air!  I am going to try harder this year to write as soon as I can, but in the meantime I am trying to catch up with walks that I went on towards the end of last year.  This time, in the middle of December 2016, I went on a great walk round the lake in St. James's Park.

Firstly I had an encounter with a Greylag goose, which was giving me the eye!

Then I passed a tree with lovely Autumn colouring with a barren tree in front of it that had a branch covered with pigeons.

Next was an inquisitive Bar-headed goose plodding around in the muddy grass.

Sitting near to the Bar-headed goose was one of its juveniles - the result of a liaison with a Greylag goose, so it is quite strangely coloured.

Next I came across an opera squawking duo of troubadours - two black-headed gulls, taking it in turns to sing loudly and very out of tune!

One gull managed to stop singing for a moment and pose like a model in front of a pile of Autumn leaves.

Further round the lake, near the little Gingerbread house, I came across a large gathering of Red-Crested Pochards, Mallards and Tufted ducks.  They were a little bit too far away to get a good photograph - but here they are anyway.

A couple of Mallards were much nearer the edge of the lake.  Here the drake is preening his feathers while the duck floats nearby.

There is always a lot of wildlife to see in St. James's Park and I always enjoy a walk there.

Parakeets in the park

Whenever I visit Hyde Park, there are always people feeding the green Ringed-Neck Parakeets in a tree-covered area near the Long Water.  The Parakeets fly around in the branches, looking down on the silly people with seeds in their hands and hoping that the birds will fly down and take it from them.  What a surprise to hear lots of screeches - from the people, that is, not the birds - when they get pecked on the finger or hand!

Here, a Parakeet is standing on a branch and checking out the offerings on the ground.

I don't know if someone is giving or selling seed to the public, but I doubt that they are bringing it with them.  They usually carry unsuitable food for the wildlife, such as bread for the ducks and swans.  The Parakeet in the photo below has taken a huge piece of biscuit.  Unfortunately, I did not have the camera in Landscape mode, so the leaves are in focus and the bird is not, but it shows you how greedy they are.

This Parakeet is looking very majestic as it sits on the top of the branch surveying the mad scene below.

Wembley Arch seen from Kew Gardens Tree Walkway

A couple of weeks ago, I went with a friend to Kew Gardens.  I had not been there for a long time and so had not been on the Treetop Walkway.  I looked on the Kew Gardens site and found the following information about the Walkway:

"Opened on International Biodiversity Day, 2008, the Treetop Walkway stands in the Arboretum, between the Temperate House and the Lake.  It was designed by Marks Barfield Architects, who also designed the London Eye.  The 18-metre high, 200-metre walkway enables visitors to wlk around the crowns of lime, sweet chestnut and oak trees.  Supported by rusted steel columns that blend in with the natural environment, it provides opportunities for inspecting birds, insects, lichen and fungi at close quarters, as well as seeing blossom emerging and seed pods bursting open in Spring.  The walkway's structure is based on a Fibonacci numerical sequence, which is often present in nature's growth patterns."

We took the lift up to the top as neither of us could face climbing up the stairs.  From the top there was a great view of the treetops.

As well as seeing the tops of the trees, I realised that Wembley Arch could by seen between the high-rise buildings in the distance.

Below is a view through the trees of the opposite side of the walkway and the section holding the lift, with the stairs just behind it.

The photograph below shows the view over the side, looking down onto the ground below that can just be seen between the tree with cream flowers and the tree with darker leaves.

There are circular areas where the Walkway paths are joined together and, in some of these, the wire mesh floor is warped and uneven - which is very disconcerting when you are so far above the ground.  Even more disconcerting was approaching an area where a couple of children were jumping up-and-down on the uneven surface and making it even more scary!

We walked down the stairs and I took a few photographs on the way down.

Blackbird in the park

Another day in the park - Regents Park again.  I went for a long walk round the lake in the Outer Circle and round the pond in the Inner Circle.  It was sunny and slightly windy, so a bit cool at times. It wasn't quite so peaceful as usual as there was a tree surgeon with a chainsaw working on a tree by the bridge over the lake near the Baker Street entrance to the park.  When he was cutting through the trunk with the chainsaw, it was very loud.  By the time I left the park several hours later, there was hardly anything left of the tree except for a stump.  I didn't bother to take any photographs of the tree and the workman - I was just annoyed he was there.  I had my lunch on a bench by the water and every so often was disturbed by the noisy geese, which was OK, and by the sound of the chainsaw, which wasn't.

Just inside one of the entrances to the park from the Inner Circle, I heard and then saw a blackbird in a tree. He was after the juicy berries or seeds and I disturbed him when I pointed my camera at him.

He flew down to the ground and hopped around in the grass. Here he is standing in the grass, near some leaves, a discarded feather and some daisies and he is looking at me with his beady yellow eye.

He flew back up to the tree and posed quite nicely for a short while, before disappearing into the centre of the tree where he could no longer be seen.

Robin's lunch in the park

When I was wandering through the park not long ago, I tried to take photos of a robin who was hiding in a tree and flitting about from branch to branch.  When I managed to find it, the pesky robin moved, so I usually got great pictures of branches and leaves - but no robin.  Below is the only photograph where it actually appeared, though the leaves are in focus and the robin isn't.  However, I rather like it anyway.

Branch and leaves, with robin in the distance

The robin then moved to the ground, where it was not at all disturbed by me taking photographs of it.  A little later I discovered the reason that it stayed put.  There was a lovely long wriggly worm slithering about in the grass and leaves.

Robin Redbreast in the grass near a worm

In this photograph, the robin has it's claws clasped around the poor worm.  At the same time, the robin is still keeping an eye on me.

Robin standing on a worm 

The worm did not stand much chance of getting away - though I must admit that it did escape a few times from the robin, but the bird was definitely not going to let it get away.

Robin with a worm in it's beak

That's nature for you.

Autumn colours in St. James's Park

I love going for walks and looking at nature in London.  St. James's Park, right in front of Buckingham Palace, is very easy to reach and I go there a lot.

Autumn colours

I loved the colours there last October.

Berries and distant swan