Comparing owls

The Great Crested Grebe chick in the nest under the Dell restaurant was given a feather by its mother. There still only seems to be one, but that is not a cause for alarm as grebes start incubating their eggs as soon as the first one is laid, so they hatch over a period of several days. This doesn't matter to grebes, as the young can be fed on the nest for several days till the last one hatches.

The grebe at the island was turning the eggs. Four can be seen, the usual number though sometimes they lay five.

The Coots nesting at the bridge have hatched their first chick.

Two Coots were fighting in the Italian Garden.

The Black Swan was feeling better today and hurried over for some sunflower hearts.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were away from their usual place at the Dell restaurant and there were four Lesser Black-Backed Gulls on the roof, plus a young one which was in the water begging its parents to feed it. Numbers are visibly going up as they are starting to breed in town, but they have nothing like the big Herring Gull colony at Paddington.

Two of the young Grey Herons from the east end of the island were back in their nest. Though now wandering freely they are not independent yet, and return to the nest to be fed.

The third had gone up to look at the fifth nest, where the chicks are much younger. They are begging noisily whenever they see their parents, so you can see why it had wanted to investigate. The parents were away; otherwise it would have been chased off.

An adult strolled through the tunnel under the bridge. It seems odd to see a bird in a tunnel ...

... but on that subject David Lacey, who has sent us pictures from the park, was in Córdoba in Argentina, where he found a family of Burrowing Owls and sent this picture. They usually nest in burrows left by ground squirrels and other small burrowing mammals. The resemblance to our closely related Little Owls is considerable, though they have longer legs.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual lime tree. In treeless areas Little Owls will also nest in burrows, or in holes in walls.

Theodore found a fallen primary feather from the Peregrines on the Imperial College belltower.

A young Pied Wagtail looked for insects on the platform where the electric boats are charged. The grooves in the non-slip planking collect bird droppings which attract insects, so it's a good hunting ground.

A family of Magpies were horsing around on the edge of the Dell stream.

A Jay near the Italian Garden waited for a peanut.

A Carrion Crow had won two slices of peperoni sausage from a pizza. Probably a human had discarded them because there was too much chilli, but birds can't taste the hotness of chilli and are unaffected,

Another Jersey Tiger moth appeared near the Italian Garden. It's unlikely that the damage to the oak leaves was caused by the caterpillar of one of these moths, as they prefer softer leaves such as nettles and willow.

A Honeybee browsed on a Busy Lizzie in the Flower Walk ...

... and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee fed on knapweed behind the Lido.

A Great Crested Grebe chick at last

The Great Crested Grebes on the lake breed late in the year, as they have to wait for the young fish to grow to the right size for feeding chicks. The pair nesting under the balcony of the Dell restaurant have just hatched their first chick. They had four eggs, so others should follow.

They are going to have to watch out for Pigeon Eater, who was with his mate on the roof directly above them.

The Lesser Black-Backed Gull pair on the posts at Peter Pan is always the same one, I think. You seldom see more than two on the Long Water.

The Black Swan, who usually rushes over to be fed, was unenthusiastic and listless and we were worried that he might be ill. But he perked up later and seems to be OK. He had probably just been fed by a visitor -- he's a very popular bird and not short of snacks -- and is also out of sorts because he's moulting.

There were Green Woodpeckers calling between the Albert Memorial and the Queen's Temple, and there are certainly several here. But I'm not sure whether there is more than one young one. This one was by itself on a half-dead cherry tree down the hill from Temple Gate.

This may or may not be the same one, filmed by the Serpentine Gallery. It's still mostly dependent on its parents for food, but by copying its mother picking ants from a nest in the ground it's taking its first steps towards independence.

The male Little Owl looked out from his usual lime tree.

On the ground below a Carrion Crow amused itself by tearing up a cardboard box.

A Jay waited for a peanut in the Flower Walk.

A Blue Tit came out for a pine nut at the southwest corner of the bridge.

The Great Tits in the yew in the Dell have at least one young one.

While I was photographing it, one of the Coal Tits appeared on a high branch ...

... followed by a young Goldcrest.

A male Pied Wagtail on the shore by the Dell restaurant had collected a midge and a larva, so there must still be young to feed from a late nest.

Stock Doves came down to bathe and drink in the Long Water on a dead tree opposite Peter Pan.

A Jersey Tiger Moth perched on a bramble near the Italian Garden.

A Common Carder bee browsed on agapanthus flowers in the Dell.

An Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar, fully two and a half inches long and decorated with false eyes to frighten birds, crawled slowly across the path in the Flower Walk. It was in danger of being trodden on, so I put it in a flower bed.

Young Green Woodpeckers

Several Green Woodpeckers called around the Long Water. A young one with speckled juvenile plumage climbed a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

At Mount Gate another fledgling followed its mother, begging for insects.

She fed it in a tree.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery appeared near the top of the chestnut tree where the pair nested.

The male Blackbird in the Rose Garden flower beds caught another moth. It's a Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. Curiously, noctua is Latin for Little Owl, whose scientific name is Athene noctua as it is the goddess's sacred bird.

A Wren perched on a bag of green waste in the Dell. Since the leaf yard is being revamped, all the cut branches and dead leaves are having to be taken by lorry to Regent's Park.

The Great Tit pair in the Dell have returned to the corkscrew hazel bush.

One of this year's young Grey Herons was fishing in the stream ...

... and an adult commandeered a Coots' nest on the Long water, built on a remaining branch of the big horse chestnut that fell into the lake years ago and has now largely rotted away.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull is back, and was standing on the old water level at Fisherman's Keep, looking round at the territory it dominates. It was hatched on a lake at Hobšovice, a few miles northwest of Prague, in 2021, and was given the metal ring ET05.589. It migrated to Hyde Park in its first winter, presumably with some unringed gulls from the same place, and has been here every year since. In 2023 the park bird ringer Bill Haines caught it and put on a plastic ring, Orange 2V57.

A Starling on the Dell restaurant terrace had won a chip from an abandoned plate.

The Great Crested Grebe pair nesting under the restaurant balcony were constantly togther, fussing about. It looks as if their eggs are beginning to hatch.

The Mute Swan 4DVZ and her three cygnets rested on the nearby shore.

One of the Moorhen chicks at Peter Pan had got separated from its parents and swam around squeaking plaintively. It did find them eventually.

A Coot chick was also alone on the collapsed willow by the bridge.

The second generation of Speckled Wood butterflies has emerged in the Flower Walk, in the place on the north side where they breed every year. This one was already slightly tattered. They are very territorial and fight each other.

A Common Carder bee browsed on an agapanthus in the Rose Garden.

A gigantic hibiscus flower fully 6 inches across has come out in one of the rose beds.

Changing places

Three Little Owls were visible at the Serpentine Gallery: the father in the lime tree where his mate usually goes ...

... his mate in the lime where he usually perches ...

... and the female owlet in the chestnut.

A young Jay in a holly tree in the Flower Walk called for its parents to feed it.

One of the parents applied for a peanut.

I hadn't seen any Jackdaws for several days, but a visit to the Round Pond produced some, all eager for peanuts.

One of the Great Tits in the yew in the Dell ate a pine nut.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden hijacked a Coots' nest to pick insects out of it. The Coots and their two chicks just had to wait at the edge of the pool till it's finished.

The Coots on the nest at the bridge changed places ...

... and so did the Great Crested Grebes on the island.

Julia filmed the Mandarin mother on the Round Pond sheltering her eleven ducklings from the stiff breeze. This was on Monday, but when I visited today Thursday she still had eleven.

Ten of them were with her or reasonably near, but the eleventh had wandered off round the edge of the pond. Mandarin duckings do have a tendency to stray.

The Tufted Duck mother supervised her eight ducklings as they dived busily by the boat hire platform.

The Canada Geese on the Long Water were trying out their newly regrown flight feathers, and charged down the lake in a mob.

A fox at the Vista stared gravely at a crowd of visitors who were taking pictures of it.

There were a lot of Emperor and Lesser Emperor dragonflies at the Italian Garden. A male Emperor rested on an iris leaf ...

... while a female was laying eggs.

Two Honeybees worked over a sunflower in the Rose Garden.