Not so Common Tern

A Common Tern flew past the Vista and Ahmet Amerikali got a good photograph of it. They are rare visitors to the park, probably from the Grand Union canal where you sometimes see them flying up and down. Possibly the foul conditions of the London end of the canal sent it fishing farther afield.

There was once a tern raft on the Long Water in an effort to get them to nest here. But it was sadly mismanaged, and now it has fallen to pieces and all that remains is a couple of posts which are used as a perch by Cormorants.

A pair of Cormorants on the island arched their necks and clashed their bills in a courtship display. They'd never nest here, it's just a pair bonding ritual.

Back on the Long Water, one of the Little Grebes led the four chicks down the edge of the reed bed ...

... while the other came over with a fish.

The Coots in the waterlilies in the Italian Garden are still maintaining their nest.

The Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep are now growing fast.

The eleven Mandarin ducklings on the Round Pond are now teenagers and no longer clustering around their mother. One of them dozing on the gravel strip was disturbed by a Jackdaw, came ashore, and ran remarkably fast to join two others browsing on some leaves that have remained green in the parched grass.

A young Grey Wagtail perched on a wire at the island.

Ahmet photographed a young Chiffchaff at the southwest corner of the bridge. There was a large family here with six or seven young.

He wondered whether this adult was a Willow Warbler, with pale legs, or a Chiffchaff, with dark legs. I'd say it was a Chiffchaff with the sun shining on its right leg. Also, in this position a Willow Warbler's wings, which are longer than those of a Chiffchaff, would probably have been visible.

One of the Coal Tits came down for pine nuts at the southest corner of the Dell.

The usual Robin in the Flower Walk appeared for its daily treat.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine could be seen in a lime tree.

There was only a distant glimpse of a Hobby near the Physical Energy statue before it took off and disappeared among the trees.

A very worn Meadow Brown butterfly was almost invisible on the path in the Rose Garden.

A clump of stonecrop is coming into flower, attracting a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.

This fly on a Michaelmas daisy looks like Tachina fera, a commoner species than T. longicornis which was the probable identification of the one I saw here on the 6th.

Young Hobbies out of the nest

The two young Hobbies are out of their nest, which was near the Round Pond but I never found it. They perched in a plane tree near the Physical Energy statue, a place that previous generations of Hobbies have often chosen. (I think the brownish colour of the underside of the one on the right is just a shadow, and not the red of an adult.)

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in the big plane tree, and gave me an angry look for disturbing her.

The male was in the lime that is much visited by both of them.

The Robin in the Flower Walk followed me along the path, collecting five pine nuts. Other people are feeding it as well, so it's a throughly spoilt young bird.

The Long-Tailed Tits were going around in big flocks accompanied by other tits and small warblers, a sign of approaching autumn. Ahmet Amerikali photographed this one at the southeast corner of the bridge.

A Wren searched for insects in a little clump of dogwood near the Lido.

A Jackdaw applied for a peanut on the lawn east of the Dell, not a usual place for them. But they fly all over the park, and every one of them expects to be given a peanut.

A Cormorant in the Italian Garden jumped off the kerb into a pool.

A Little Grebe bringing a fish to the chicks in the Long Water reeds passed a Coot going the other way.

The Great Crested Grebes with two chicks were in their usual place east of the island ...

... and the pair with one are now usually seen father east, beyond the boat hire platform. So far I haven't seen any territorial disputes between these families.

The pair with three, the youngest chicks, are still keeping hidden in the bushes around the island.

A Moorhen chick wandered away from its mother to search for anything edible in the muck at the edge of the lake. Moorhens can eat almost anything, the secret of their success.

One of the young Grey Herons from the fourth nest was climbing around the moored boats with an adult.

Another was at the east end of the lake, where the water is now the artificial-looking bright green of tinned pea soup.

The water in the Dell stream is worse, with broad patches of blue-green cyanobacteria. The electric pump for the fountain has been turned off in the hope that the foul water, which is now travelling through in one direction only, will drain away into the culvert leading to the Thames. But the flow is so sluggish that the water is getting worse and worse.

One of the two Mute cygnets on the Serpentine was weak on its feet and apparently suffering from some kind of poisoning. It's still eating and preening, so the rescue team are only watching it for the moment, but if it weakens further it will be taken into care.

Brown Hawker dragonflies, especially the males, are hyperactive and never seem to perch for a moment. So Ahmet scored a remarkable coup getting a picture of one in flight in the Italian Garden.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee went over the florets in the centre of a sunflower in the Rose Garden. Visiting every one of them for nectar is quite a job, and the bee may stay on one flower for ten minutes.

A grudging ration of rain

Not an exciting day, but at least it rained a bit and there is the promise of more. The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was visible in one of the usual lime trees ...

... and her mate less so in the other, but neither was taking any notice of events on the ground.

There has been a reasonable crop of blackberries this year and you would expect the big patch between Peter Pan and the Italian Garden to be thronged with Starlings, Blackcaps and other fruit-eating birds, but they haven't been showing up. At least there was a glimpse of a young Blackbird.

The Song Thrush east of the Lido is a regular sight. There are blackthorn bushes here to provide it with sloes.

The Long-Tailed Tits were in the catalpa trees by the Italian Garden again. Evidently there are plenty of insects in these trees, thought not as much as in hawthorns which are always their favourites.

Only Great Tits could be seen in the Dell. The Blue and Coal Tits were away on their own business.

Pigeon Eater was in his favourite place on the Dell restaurant roof.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden was prowling around the edge. It takes no notice of passing humans unless they deliberately bother it.

The eldest Great Crested Grebe chick of the six on the Serpentine is an only child and is being pampered by its indulgent parents. But it is beginning to learn to fish by following a parent when it dives, so it is not an idle spoilt brat.

The Long Water, surrounded by trees, bushes and reeds, and with only a few places where you can get down to the edge, is an awkward place for seeing Little Grebes. But occasionally one comes past the Vista and you can get a few brief glimpses of it diving. I didn't see the chicks at all today, but that is no surprise as they spend much of their time in the safety of the reeds.

There is a pair of Great Crested Grebes on the Long Water. They have made two unsuccessful attempts at nesting and now seem to have given up.

The Coot pair at the bridge were in possession of their nest while the local heron wasn't using it as a fishing platform. Nothing will persuade these stubborn birds to find a better place.

Just an ordinary Moorhen preening on the edge of the Serpentine, but I like these modest birds, smaller and quieter than Coots. They ought to be the national bird of Germany, as they have the colours of her flag.

The geese are having a thin time on the grass parched by the drought, but these Canadas have found a good feed in the ornamental water plants in baskets along the edge of the Serpentine.

A light breeze encouraged a few to take a practice flight up the Serpentine.

The four Egyptian goslings were in their usual place at Fisherman's Keep, obediently staying with their mother.

The Pochards seem to have taken over the fallen Lombardy poplar at Peter Pan, which was formerly a hangout for Cormorants.

Although I got a sight of two different hoverflies in the Rose Garden yesterday, by far the commonest species is the Batman hoverfly. Here are two on the strawflowers which they favour.

You may wonder what the common name for this species was before the emergence of the Batman comics. It was the Death's Head hoverfly, as the two black marks on its thorax can also be read as a skull.

Chiffchaff stare

A Chiffchaff in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Flower Walk gave the camera a severe stare.

The familiar Robin was waiting in a flower bed. It has a trace of yellow at the base of its bill, so it must be one of this year's young ones in its first suit of adult feathers.

One of the Jays tattered from parenting was in a tree. It will have to wait till autumn before it looks respectable again.

A Long-Tailed Tit extracted a midge from a catalpa tree near the Italian Garden.

A young Wood Pigeon flew into an elder tree to search for berries, but they had all gone.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked out from a lime tree.

The recent hot weather has left a thick layer of algae and general filth along the edge of the Serpentine. The Black-Headed Gull who visits the lake from Prague every year pattered his feet to try to bring up something edible from the muck. Gulls really do have cast-iron immune systems.

A Lesser Black-Backed Gull rested on the solar panel at the Lido which powers some kind of measuring instrument. It had dark eyes, which are probably the legacy of having had bird flu and recovered.

The four Little Grebe chicks on the Long Water could be seen from the bridge.

You can get a slightly closer view through a gap in the bushes on the east side of the lake. A parent brought a fish to the chicks, which had retreated behind the netting around the reed bed. They are absolutely hoovering up small fish for their young.

One of the two Great Crested Grebe chicks at the island was given a fish that looked too large for it to swallow ...

... but it managed, with an effort.

The single chick on the far side was relentlessly chasing its parents. It has now started diving after them, which is the first stage in learning how to fish.

The solitary Moorhen in the Dell, which lost its mate to a fox several years ago, has finally found a new partner. They were together on the small waterfall.

A young Moorhen in drab teenage brown cruised past Peter Pan.

The durable sea lavender in the Rose Garden is still in flower, and was visited by a Common Carder Bee. The butterlies have all gone except for a few Small Whites.

The hoverflies of the genus Eristalis are a confusing lot and I am never sure of identifying them. I think this one on an orange stonecrop flower is a European Drone Fly, E. arbustorum ...

... and this one on a strawflower is a Common Drone Fly, E. tenax. But there is little doubt about the smaller insect it's sharing the flower with: a Thick-Legged Drone Fly, Syritta pipiens.