Chilly day at Kensington Gardens

After feeling pretty ill over the last few days, the antibiotics finally kicked in today, and I felt well enough to venture out for longer than a couple of hours. Kensington Gardens was my choice of venue. According to Ralph Hancocks blog, the Tawny Owls have been showing well near their old nest tree recently, and the male Little Owl has been posing frequently on his tree. However, today they both let me down, so my good mate, Gina, and I made do with what else the park had to offer.

 

Great Crested Grebes and their young, are still obligingly easy to watch.

 

 

 

Watching the adults fish underwater by the bridge kept Gina and I amused for some time. It's not often you get to see a Great Crested Grebe swim under water.

 

 

 

One of the abundant Herons nearly took a spill when he attempted to land on this post.

 

 

but soon righted himself, and posed indignantly.

 

 

There were three Cormorants fishing by the bridge, giving beautiful close up views

of their winter plumage.

 

 

 

A stunning male Pochard preened in the wintery sunlight.

 

 

and a Gadwall was viewable from near the Peter Pan statue.

 

 

By the leaf yard there were plenty of Grey Squirrels squirreling away.

 

 

One of the resident Robins waited patiently for some food.

 

 

and when he didn't get any from me, he perched on the park board, as if to protest

there wasn't a photo of him pictured on it.

 

 

The Blue Tits were looking glorious in the sun.

 

 

and there were numerous Great Tits around too.

 

 

I played hide and seek with a male Green Woodpecker.

 

 

 

A flock of Long-tailed Tits flew through. This one posed so close to me, I had to stand back a few steps so I could take a photo of it.

 

 

There were a few Jays around, this one sat watching me for a while.

 

 

A very content Wren perched just feet away.

 

 

I caught the sound of a Treecreeper calling, and after much searching finally located it quite high up in a tree. Managed to grab three dreadful photos, but they will do as record shots until

 I eventually get a good one.

 

 

 

 

Also seen but not photographed were a gorgeous Goldcrest and a Coal Tit.

Nuthatches could be heard but were as elusive as the owls today.

 

Gina and I always hand feed the small birds when we go to Kensington Gardens, but almost always we have to distract one of the Parakeets that wants to take all the food. There used to be two Parakeets that were tame enough to come down for a snack, one we called 'Biter' as he wasn't quite so gentle as his partner. Today it was just the one bird, and it was the gentle one.

 

 

 

We weren't the only ones at Kensington Gardens today. I saw Ralph Hancock, who does the daily blog from the park, and two of my friends, Tricia and Pete, also visited the park before I got there today. Below are the links to all threes blogs.

 

 

link to Tricias blog

 

link to Petes blog

 

link to Ralphs blog