Lurking in the leaves

A Wren lurked shyly in a bush in the Flower Walk.

The Coal Tit in the Dell hates being photographed and also does its best to hide in the leaves. It seems almost unkind to photograph it, but it does get several pine nuts as a reward.

The two in the Flower Walk, both of which will come to my hand, are easier but you still need to be quick.

A Blue Tit is used to the camera and even seems to pose for its portrait ...

... as does the faithful Robin at Mount Gate.

Long-Tailed Tits are completely indifferent to humans (apart from a single bird in St James's Park which Mark Williams managed to lure to his hand with bits of suet).

A Jackdaw on the edge of the Serpentine stood in front of a Black-Headed Gull to make sure it got to the peanut first.

A pair of Black-Headed Gulls walked the walk and talked the talk on the edge of the Serpentine.

Feeding the Great Crested Grebe chicks at the east end of the Serpentine island was interrupted by a gull trying to grab the fish.

You would think that grebe chicks were permenently ravenous and would instantly swallow any fish that was offered, but this one on the Long Water was reluctant. Maybe even a chick can have enough sometimes.

Its father eventually ate the fish himself and headed off under the bridge.

Chicks are also given plenty of feathers to wrap up fishbones.

The four grebes which arrived in the middle of the swimming event on Saturday are still together. They seem to be two males and two females, so they should soon split into pairs and look for territories.

A Grey Heron waited beside a boathouse for a fish to venture out from under the concrete beams supporting the wall.

Another was doing the same on the other side.

A very faded Common Carder bee browsed on a gaudy lantana flower in the Rose Garden.

A Greenbottle fly wandered over a stonecrop flower.

A Hornet Hoverfly rested upside down on an ivy leaf behind the Lido, kept in place by the sticky hairs on its feet.

Scenes at the Italian Garden

Two videos of the same Grey Wagtail today, as you don't generally get such a good chance to film one. It was looking for insects among the algae and duckweed under the Italian Garden fountains, which you can hear in the background.

It preened on a reed stem.

But that's not all that was happening here. Ahmet Amerikali was at the other end of the waterfront, where a band of Cormorants was fishing furiously, and he got two dramatic pictures. A Cormorant struggled to subdue a pike it had caught.

Encouraged by the activity, some Black-Headed Gulls joined in and one of them caught a perch. It did actually catch it in the water, not snatch it from a Cormorant.

Farther down the Long Water, the leaning and rotten Lombardy poplar at Peter Pan has lost its largest branch ...

... which was lying in the lake.

This is where it broke off, showing how rotten the wood is and the Poplar Fieldcap mushrooms that have spread the rot. It probably won't be long before the rest of the tree goes.

A flight of Long-Tailed Tits in the Flower Walk provided a couple of pictures.

A Blue Tit that was with them perched in a horse chestnut tree showing the ravages of the Leaf Miner Moth larvae. These provide food for the bird, of course, and you often see Blue Tits investigating the underside of horse chestnut leaves where the larvae gather.

The Coal Tit in the Dell collected a pine nut from the railings.

To complete the set, a Great Tit looked out from a rose bush in the Rose Garden.

A Robin waited in an oak by the bridge.

The swimming event, which in previous years has lasted two days, was over in one and peace returned to the Serpentine. It will take a few days to clear up the mess. 

The Czech Black-Headed Gull looked down imperiously from his favourite post at the east end of the lake.

I wondered why this Lesser Black-Backed Gull eating a pigeon by the Dell restaurant was surrounded by hungry young gulls wanting to snatch it. Pigeon Eater would have chased them away at once. But a still picture I took, more zoomed in, shows that this is not Pigeon Eater -- it's another gull that has been hunting on his territory while he was away. It seems to have a mate, which comes in at the end of the video.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick was here, now starting to dive after its parents, and also to look for small items of food itself. It caught what were probably insect larvae.

The lone Mute cygnet and its mother were also present.

A crowd of Cormorants at the island used every available place to stand.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in the Rose Garden, unable to reach into the long tubular flowers of baby sage, used its sharp proboscis to piece the base of the flower and extract the nectar.

A late Painted Lady butterfly rested on a dead leaf by the Serpentine Gallery.

Chaos on the Serpentine

The Serpentine was a noisy chaos with the first day of the public swimming event -- thank goodness it only lasts two days. Two Great Crested Grebe families, each with two chicks, were crowded uncomfortably closely into the chained-off enclosure by the Serpentine island. The scene cuts to the more distant family at 20 seconds, then pans back to the first family.

Four more grebes have just arrived on the lake, and must have been regretting their decision. But things would have calmed down in a couple of hours so they could catch some fish.

The lone Egyptian gosling was on the shore looking confused.

At least the Long Water was peaceful, and three Cormorants were fishing under the Italian Garden.

It was still quite warm, and a Cormorant reclining on a post at Peter Pan was panting and vibrating its throat to cool down.

A Wood Pigeon bathed in the small waterfall in the Dell ...

... and Ahmet Amerikali found a Goldcrest in the big yew tree.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker perched on a treetop overlooking the Long Water ...

... and a Jackdaw kept a lookout from the top of the Henry Moore sculpture.

On the other side a hawthorn tree was busy with Greenfinches and Chiffchaffs. I got a picture of one ...

... and Ahmet got the other.

This pair of Magpies is often seen in a variegated holly tree.

The young Robin at Peter Pan came down to pick up a pine nut on the ground. It's getting the right idea very early.

The Robin at Mount Gate was waiting as usual.

In the Rose Garden a Red Admiral butterfly worked its way over a stonecrop flower head, sticking its long proboscis into one floret after another.

Two frequent sights here: the long-flowering Verbena bonariensis and one of the tough Buff-Tailed Bumblebees that I have photographed here in every month of the year.

The park management have kept up the signs warning people to avoid contact with the water in spite of the swimming event. I suppose they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. A man carrying bundles that show he had been swimming was prudently photographing one of the signs.

Idle chatter

A Robin on a cedar in the Dell chattered irritably. There didn't seem to be any threat, so maybe it was just in a bad mood.

The Robin at Mount Gate struck a dramatic attitude.

The one in the Rose Garden sang in a pretty setting of rose hips ...

... and holly berries made a background for a Great Tit at the bridge.

Pigeon Eater was preening at the Dell restaurant. It's hard work being the handsomest gull on the lake.

There were Cormorants everywhere: seventeen in a row on the posts at Peter Pan ...

... uneasy neighbours for a Grey Heron on the island ...

... and annoying the Coot and the Mute Swan family at the bridge.

The Great Crested Grebe chick from the nest at the Dell restaurant was given a fish that it could only just get down, but it managed eventually.

The two from the east end of the island were with their father, squeaking occasionally as they waited for their mother to come back with a fish.

The young Greylag Geese that flew into the park with their parents now have completely adult feathers but their feet remain brownish compared to the pink of the adult on the left.

Warm sunshine brought out plenty of dragonflies. A Migrant Hawker perched on a reed by the bridge ...

... and there was a Common Darter on the Dell railings.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee enjoyed a stonecrop flower in the Rose Garden.

A large Beefsteak fungus, Fistulina hepatica, can be seen in the leaf yard ...

and Fairy Ring mushrooms, Marasmius oreades, are coming up in Hyde Park.

Blue-green algae are still active in the lake -- though actually these are cyanobacteria, not the harmless green algae. There are mats of dead cells in the downwind corners of the lake, seen here at the Dell restaurant. It is at this stage that toxins are released into the water.

The warning notice is still up, with the usual wonky grammar and syntax of park notices.

And there is a swimming event on the Serpentine tomorrow, attended by thousands of people. It will be interesting to see what happens.