Greylag Goose with large piece of French bread being followed in Hyde Park

The last time my camera took me for a walk round the Serpentine in Hyde Park, on Sunday, I saw a Greylag goose with a large piece of French bread in it's beak.  This caused a lot of interest from the other geese in the area and ended up with a game of pass-the-parcel!

A Canada goose was closely following the Greylag.

The Greylag was quickly surrounded by other hungry geese.

The goose managed to stop off for a quick bite, but was being pursued by a Canada goose.

The Canada goose managed to steal the bread, but it was soon it was harassed by a young gull, who managed to get the largest piece.  Meanwhile two Greylag geese were having a loud argument.

Then it was time for the Canada goose to get into action and try to get the large piece of bread back.

The young gull managed to hang onto it.

No, it was back in the Canada's beak.

Not for long - a Greylag was running off with the spoils stuck onto the end of it's beak.

Time to get a quick bite before someone else grabbed the bread.

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.

Birds in London's Battersea Park

I have walked round the lake in London's Battersea Park several times during the last few months and below are photographs of some of the birds I have seen there on my visits.

Hiding behind the shrubbery are two herons, which I have often seen fishing together.

 Here one of them has its beak under the water and, hopefully, catching something tasty.

I don't usually take photographs of pigeons, but I liked the colouring of this one.  It was quietly sitting on the railing, posing very nicely for me - so how could I resist?  Normally birds just fly away when I go anywhere near them, so this was a nice change.

At the moment there seem to be lots and lots of black-headed gulls (without black heads) around.  Everywhere I go lately, the water is filled with them.  In this photo, there is just one.

Here a couple of Egyptian Geese are paddling round the edge of the lake.

Finally, a magpie has found something tasty on the ground and is having a little snack among the leaves.

Wood Pigeon nest on my roof terrace - update - 2

I have not been out onto my terrace for a week since seeing a Wood Pigeon nest at the back of one of my larger containers.  It held 2 youngsters and the parent birds have been taking it in turn to sit with them.  I put photos on an earlier blog.

I just got back from a weekend away and, on inspecting the nest from a distance (out of my bathroom window on the floor above the terrace), I saw that the youngsters were on their own.  I got my camera and nipped quickly out on the terrace to find out how they had grown.

2 young Wood Pigeons at the back of a large plant container

You can see that the one at the back is larger than the one nearer the front of the photograph.

The larger baby Wood Pigeon is slightly puffed-up

When I put my hand through the leaves in the plant pot in front of the youngsters, the larger baby at the back tried to sit up and pumped out its chest.

In my first photos, shown in an earlier blog, the birds did not look as though they had feathers at all.  You can see that they now do have feathers and that the chest feathers on both of them are rusty-coloured - so they are quickly growing up and beginning to look similar to their parents.

I just looked out of the bathroom window again and it seems as though a parent bird is now back with the youngsters.

I do not really like having a Wood Pigeon nest on my terrace - but I am fascinated by it!

Wood pigeon nesting on my first floor terrace - 1

I spent the afternoon exhausting myself by walking all round London's Battersea Park searching for wildlife to photograph - during sunshine and showers.

After a well-deserved rest and a cup of tea when I got home, I decided to pot up some pansies that I had bought in the park.  I did this on my outside terrace, which is basically the roof of the shop extension that is at the back and below my flat.  There is a well on the side of the extension that goes down two floors below to the shop basement.

While I was working outside, I occasionally heard a deep-throated single note warning sound that I thought must come from a pigeon.  I looked down the well at the side of the roof terrace, but could see nothing - I had limited vision because there is a post fence along the edge of the terrace, so I could not lean over to look properly.

Below is a photograph, taken last year, of Agapanthus in two containers that are standing on a very large container, which is placed on the wall.  Below, on the ground, is a further pot containing white lilies.

Agapanthus and lilies on the terrace

I carried on with my planting and tidying up but, when I came to move a container on the floor in the corner of the terrace, a great big fat Wood Pigeon flew up from the back of the large container that is on edge of the terrace wall and gave me the fright of my life!  I could not see it because of the two smaller containers that were standing on the large one.  They now only contain leaves, without the tall flowers that are in the photo.

When I looked through the plants in the container, I saw two strange things that I can only presume are baby Wood Pigeons!  I quickly ran back into the flat and got my camera so I could try and take a photograph before mummy (or daddy) came back.

Baby Wood Pigeons at the back of a very large plant pot

As you can see in the above photograph, the parents have made only a little effort in making a nest, just having added a few sticks to the top of the soil in the container.

I could see the parent Wood Pigeon waiting anxiously on a neighbouring terrace, so I quickly finished off what I was doing and went back into the flat.  After I closed the door, it flew back to my terrace and sat on the fence for a while.  The photo below was taken through the safety glass panel in the back door.

Wood Pigeon waiting anxiously to return to her young

Later, I looked out of the bathroom window above the terrace and could just see that mum/dad was sitting with the babies and keeping them warm.

So I have got my own wildlife!  I won't be able to take any more photographs for fear of frightening the parent Wood Pigeon off for good.