Birds and nature - March walk in Battersea Park

On Monday my camera took me out on another walk in a local park - Battersea Park - which is within reasonable walking distance from my flat.  I just walk along Grosvenor Road and then across Chelsea Bridge and enter the park by the gates near the river Thames.

Quite a few of my walks there have not produced that many birds, which is really what my camera likes looking at, but the scenery in the park is always worth photographing whatever the weather.  Unfortunately, it was yet another dull overcast day and I had missed any sunshine that there may have been earlier in the day.  Never mind!  I enjoyed the walk anyway.

The first wildlife I saw on the lake consisted of a pair of Norther Shovelers doing what they are named after - shovelling with their long beaks.  They were going round-and-round in an area with lots of bubbles from a water filter (I presume).

Another Northern Shoveler drake was a little closer to the edge of the lake and stopped shovelling long enough for me to take this photograph showing his long shovel-like beak.

The park is not very colourful at the moment, but in this spot by the edge of the water, there was a sign of Spring - pinky-red Quince blossoms amongst some other cream blossom.  They looked very pretty and were very encouraging as they made me think of warmer weather.

Below is a rather bleak, but attractive, looking view of bare silver-branched trees on the other side of the lake. 

This is a closer view of the silver-branched tree, which had a couple of Cormorants sitting in it's branches.

My walk was brightened up by a row of red Cornus stems that were near the park's Barbara Hepworth statue.

I thought that this was a lovely peaceful scene.

Further round the lake there was another tall bare-branched tree that was home to up to twenty Cormorants that were sitting on it's branches.  The numbers changed as some birds left and others arrived.

This photograph of the Cormorants was taken with my camera at it's highest zoom!

I saw three Mallard friends swimming in the lake - a female with one normal drake and one larger, darker drake with a white bib.  They were together in a small group.

This is the female Mallard.

 This is the large dark Mallard with the white bib.

I took a photograph of the cafe on the other side of the lake.  Behind it, outside the park, are blocks of flats and the two of the chimneys at Battersea Power Station - complete with building cranes.

There were not many people sitting in the area outside the cafe - I wonder why?

There were two herons standing in a nest right at the top of a very tall tree.

By now I had walked all round the lake.  When I got back to the point where I had begun my walk, I discovered this light coloured female Mallard with white markings at the edge of her wings.

She was with her boyfriend - a handsome Mallard drake.  He watched while she preened some of her feathers.

Even on an overcast day, I had a very enjoyable walk round the park and it only started to rain on my way back home!  I was very lucky!

Wildlife on a cold March day in the park

Last Sunday I went with my camera for a walk in London's St. James's Park.  I have already posted some photographs of birds on the ice and hiding in daffodils from that walk.  Now I am posting photographs of wildlife seen on the rest of the walk round the lake.

I am very fond of the eight black swans that now live in the park and always make a point of trying to find them.  I saw this lovely creature standing in the mud at the side of an iced-over part of the lake.  It looked a bit annoyed in this picture as the near-by tourist was throwing food to other birds at the time.

It stared at me in disbelief as I was only photographing it and not attempting to feed it.

Round the corner I came across a group of young frisky squirrels that were running about all over the place.  This one had a very raggedy tail.

One of the other young squirrels scampered up a tree and decided to sit for a moment in a modelling pose.

Further round the lake there was another black swan - this time in angry mode with it's feathers all ruffled up.

Round here there was a group of five or six of the black swans, but they would not agree to pose all together in a place with enough light for a group photograph.  It was a very overcast, dull and cold day and it had been raining earlier on in the morning.

The angry black swan stayed angry and then swam off in a huff.   It's feathers made an amazing pattern.

One of the black swans always hangs around with a pair of mute swans.  Here it is swimming over to join one of the pair.  It was not made very welcome, so ended up having to leave them alone!

A coot was sitting on a nest under a tree on the ice-covered water.

Swimming along with the other ducks in the unfrozen area of the lake was a rather dark-coloured female mallard.

There was a group of three white Ross's geese on the grass at the other end of the lake.

I rather liked the amazing pattern of feathers on the back of this preening Greylag goose.

Three members of the hybrid Greylag/Bar-headed goose family were marching in line along the grass.

A Gadwall couple had come onto the grass to look for food.

Four Red-breasted and two Barnacle geese were also foraging for food in the grass.

So were two Widgeon drakes - with the icy water of the lake seen behind them.

A couple of Cormorants were standing on a fallen branch near the island in the centre of the lake.

A Pintail drake was wandering around on the muddy land.

A Hooded Merganser drake was swimming in the cold water.

A Bahama Pintail looked as though it was standing in the icy wasteland of Siberia.

A female Pochard looked like a sleepy statue stuck in the melting ice.

A female Hooded Merganser was having a bad hair day on the ice.  A Pochard drake came swimming towards me.

Another Bahama Pintail was on the ice in front of a male Smew and Tufted duck.

Contrasts - birds, ice and daffodils

On Sunday I went for another walk in St. James's Park - though I must admit I nearly turned round and went back home as it started raining while I was on the way there.  I hung around Victoria for a little while, trying to decide what to do, and then the rain stopped - so I went for it!  I was glad I did as the lake was still partly frozen over as a result of the appalling weather London had last week.  It is not often we get snow and, unfortunately, I did not manage to go out in it.  Looking out at it through the window was enough for me!

This is a very wintry view of the lake from the bridge that goes across the centre to the Trafalgar Square end of the lake.  There was a lot of ice on this side of the water and the gulls were looking very bemused at the situation.

Some gulls were standing on the water.  I believe these are juvenile herring gulls of varying ages and a couple of smaller black-headed gulls.

A juvenile mute swan, nearly fully-grown now, was standing on the ice and flapping it's wings.

The large cygnet looked around with interest at the various gulls standing, walking and slipping across the ice.  Here it looks at though a black-headed gull is standing on the swan's back!

Even in icy conditions, coots get very aggressive.   These three were chasing one-another across the ice and in the water - fluffing up their feathers and standing bum-to-bum in annoyance!

A young herring gull started skating across the ice and almost did the splits.

The ice did not appear to have been as thick on the other side of the lake and it had all melted at the end of the lake by Buckingham Palace.

As I walked along the side of the lake towards the Palace, I could see lots of black-headed gulls standing on the frozen water.

There were also some Greylag geese on the ice, which made their pink legs and beaks show up much more than normal.  A coot was tentatively strutting across the ice.

At the front of the photograph, a young herring gull looked as though it was skating.  A Greylag goose flapped it's weeks, whilst it's companion carried out a bit of maintenance preening.

On the other side of the lake, a black swan was standing in the water right at the edge of the ice.  It was flapping it's wings and had a small white feather stuck to it's beak.  I wonder who it had been nipping?

My feet are cold!

Now for an amazing contrast to my very wintry-looking photographs.  On the grass at one side of the lake, there was a host of golden daffodils - making everything look just like Spring.  A one-footed Egyptian goose was doing a balancing act in front of the flowers.

It's partner was doing a disappearing act amongst the daffodils.

Eventually, the almost invisible goose came out into the open and both geese were working on their one-legged balancing acts!

Opposite the circus-training Egyptian geese, there were even more daffodils right by the edge of the water.  Two Greylag geese were practising their own circus act amongst the daffodils.  Across the lake, on the other side of the water, the ice was still frozen and it was holding a collection of various gulls which were practising their skating skills.

One goose was trying to sing!

They both did a lot of head-bobbing.

They were joined by some friends, plus an inquisitive coot.

But they ignored their pals and continued with their head-bobbing amongst the daffodils.

Needless to say, regardless of the weather, my camera and I enjoyed a great walk.