Hyde Park

My supervisor has been teaching nearly all week, leaving me with lots of time and a dwindling pile of work. So, this afternoon I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a walk. I walked through Hyde Park on my way to catch a train last term, but didn't have my camera on me. Not today! It's time for a list-of-pictures post!

In another excellent stroke of luck, there were lots of roadworks at the start of the massive road that cuts straight through the park:

Which meant that the road inside the park was like this:

Rather than, like, the A45. It was actually quiet. Wonderful.

So I got onto the grass, took off my shoes and socks and set about finding interesting organisms. First up was an exotic but undeniably attractive Egyptian goose:

I also got a photo of it walking. I've always underestimated how much goose-stepping actually resembles geese stepping:

Note also the offended swans.

Next to that lake edge was a stand of trees. And in the trees there was, rather unexpectedly, a heron:

And nearly enough pigeons that the branches may have broken if they'd all jumped at once:

There were pigeons on the ground being amusing too.

Courtship going round in circles

Not a flamingo

But sadly, that was when my camera batteries died for good. Because after that I saw:

• Great crested grebes
• Lesser black-backed gulls
• A coot nest
• Tufted ducks
• A cormorant
• A tree that had covered the ground around it in the softest white seed-down
• A magpie rummaging through a bin (I threw its rejects back in afterwards)
• Horseguards in training, basically playing polo with spears
• A bee swarm that I nearly walked into

 If Free Time is going to become more of a thing, I will be back again soon!