Towards the end of December my camera took me for a pre-Christmas walk round Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Once again, I entered the park near Lancaster Gate underground station as that is the nearest entrance to the rowan trees located on Buck Hill.
There was only one rowan tree (out of four) that had any berries left on it - but not for long. This male blackbird had just picked a berry, which can be seen in it's beak, and I don't think it will be too long for all the birds that like the fruit to polish off the remaining berries.
Nearby, a robin was concealing itself amongst a lot of twiggy branches.
A Mistle thrush was posing near the top of a very tall tree near the Italian Garden. My camera has a reasonable, but not long zoom facility, so I was able to get a fairly close-up photograph of it.
I dragged myself away from the rowan tree and walked along the Longwater, stopping near the Leaf Yard to see if there were any other birds around rather than the usual Parakeets. A Jackdaw was hanging onto the top of an iron fence post in the sunshine.
In Hyde Park I came across an Egyptian goose enjoying a splashy bath in the Serpentine.
A squirrel was collecting fallen leaves from the grass near the Rose garden in order to add them to it's nest towards the top of a nearby tree.
It got a bunch of leaves in it's mouth and sprinted up the trunk of the tree. The squirrel is out-of-focus as it was moving so quickly. It came down several times and repeated the process - all at great speed.
The squirrel's nest was about halfway up towards the top of the very tall tree on the right of the photograph.
Back along the other side of the Serpentine, in front of the little island, there were two Great Crested Grebes - one in winter and the other in summer plumage - which made them look like two different species. I believe that they are a pair, but I have no idea which is male and which is female.
A black-headed gull was surveying the scene while standing on the head of a statue overlooking the Italian garden. The statue is of Edward Jenner, a doctor who invented the smallpox vaccine.
Now back near the Rowan tree where I began my walk, I noticed a bird towards the top of the tall tree where earlier on I had spotted the Mistle thrush (photograph of which is near the beginning of this post). When I downloaded my photographs onto my computer, I discovered that the bird was a Great Spotted Woodpecker. It is not a particularly good photograph, but I am including it as it is my first, and only, photograph of a Great Spotted Woodpecker.
I was back at the rowan tree, which had now been invaded by a Green Rose-ringed Parakeet. As I said, the fruit on this tree was unlikely to last that much longer!
That was a great, sunny, cold, pre-Christmas walk!
