Wednesday, 18 September 2019

Two Carrion Crows went through the remains of someone's breakfast at the Dell restaurant. It was a bit surprising to see that a tomato was a success. The other crow rejected some mushrooms and went back to scraping melted fat off the other plate.

Another skilfully held up a plastic plate in a bin to eat the scraps on it.

A young Herring Gull had no difficulty in keeping crows off the Feral Pigeon carcass it was eating. For once this pigeon was not a victim of the pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull. A circle of feathers nearby shows that it was killed by a Sparrowhawk which was probably frightened off the kill by people or dogs. A female Sparrowhawk can fly holding a pigeon, a male can't.

The two Spotted Flycatchers were still in their usual place near the bridge.

While I was photographing them, the local Great Tits ...

... and Blue Tits kept interrupting to ask for food.

A Blackbird fed in the rowan tree on Buck Hill.

The Great Crested Grebes from the east end of the island were looking after their three chicks. One of them got fed.

The single chick from the other end of the island is no longer tiny.

Ahmet Amerikali is keeping an eye on the two Little Grebe chicks in Southwark Park. They grow up much faster than their larger cousins, and are now almost adult size.

A young Moorhen clung to the slippery edge of the fountain in the Italian Garden.

A fox cub basked in the sunshine behind the Henry Moore sculpture.

Two squirrels pulled the bark off a branch to find grubs.

Two male Migrant Hawker dragonflies circled the planters in the Italian Garden.

A face-to-face view.

There was also a male Willow Emerald damselfly.

This curious painting has appeared on one of the lifebelt boxes at the Vista. It's painted on a road map of the Loire Valley, varnished and glued on. I can't make out whether the signature is Annabelle Amorvio or Annabelle Amori 19.


  1. Someone could write a book on weird things or people found in the park.

    Love to see the tiny little Grebes growing so well that they aren't tiny any more.

    I'd have thought tomatoes would be poisonous to birds. Live and learn.

    1. I don't think any red fruit would be poisonous to birds, it wouldn't make evolutionary sense. Red fruit is brightly visible to birds but not to most mammals, which have colour receptors only for yellow and violet. So only birds eat the fruit, and their hasty digestion passes the seeds through intact to be spread around.

  2. Whereabouts by the bridge are the flycatchers? If they want to hang around till tomorrow lunchtime, that would be nice.

    1. West side of the Long Water, between 20 and 120 yards north of the bridge. Look for them flying and then try to find the perch.