Regent's Park 22nd to 26th May 2017

Regent's Park 22nd - 26th May

It has been a very settled week weather wise with clear sunny skies all week. On the bird front it remained quiet until today. We are hoping that the Sedge Warbler in area 2 will soon show us that he has bred. The 7m Reed Warblers are a couple of weeks behind the Sedge but hopefully will all be paired up by now. There are 2m Common Whitethroat's the one in area 39 has a mate and they look to be nesting. The other male is still sky dancing but hopefully has a partner. There is only one Herring Gull nesting this year, there eggs hatched early this week. Today 2 birds that we hadn't seen in the park this year finally put in an appearance. A pair of Common Terns though displaying high over the park didn't stop and an early morning 6.40am Common Sandpiper looked as if it wanted to land but headed off westwards, however at 9.15am 2 birds were flushed from the bank of area 9 by workers reducing the height of the ground vegetation so that the fox could hide up and eat the ducks that are nesting there.

This weeks pictorial





















Crow trying to drive down the Heron


Spotting Common Sandpipers on the side of Heron Island, area 9 can be difficult.





The gloves were off when an intruder came to close to the nest.












Eventually he turned tail and fled back to the other end of The Bandstand Island, area 7. It was the female who had driven him off and although looking a little she soon refreshed herself.






With no families produced, due to Fox predation fighting is still going on, the grebe nearly becoming part of it.





This time of the year is the only time of the year when Canada Geese behave like wild geese. By that I mean that they gather into flocks and in our case birds from NE and NW London arrive here, to moult. It means that our resident population around 40 to 50 birds swells to possibly 200. 






This is littering helium filled balloons shouldn't be allowed.






Comments

Unknown said…
Nice photos, Tony.
What is the species of goose or hybrid goose in you photos with the gosling. We saw the same pair this morning June 1.
If you think about it, you should get it, she and her gosling are Bar-headed Geese.
Unknown said…
Thank you so much. The three references I used (rspb list included) did not list this goose, but a quick googling for the gosling (had to say it) and it's got a great story with extreme migration over the Himalayas. She was a pleasure to watch so sweetly caring for the little one. Thank you again, Andy Ferland Holliston Mass.