Young herons out of the nest

The Grey Herons' nest on the island was empty for the first time. So all the young herons are flying, though they will be returning to the nest for some time to be fed. One of them flew back into the nest, on the right of this picture, and then out on to a branch.

A young Great Crested Grebe had unwisely flown down from the Serpentine into into the little stream in the Dell. 

It's stuck, because it needs a 50 yard run over clear water to take off, and then open ground while it slowly gains altitude. Attempts are already under way to catch it and bring it back, but it's going to be a tricky job as they can dive in a flash and swim at 15 mph under water. Meanwhile, it seemed calm and was mildly interested in the large carp in the stream. There will be some smaller fish , if it can get them. It has been eating insects, so it should be all right for a while.

A pair of adults -- not its parents -- rested peacefully on the lake above ...

... and all was well with the family on the Long Water.

The Coots under the Italian Garden have gone, though it's not clear whether this means they have lost their two remaining chicks to the pike or whether they have had the good sense to move them out of the danger zone. A male grebe, in fact the father of the family in the previous picture, was fishing in the reeds next to their nest, so they were certainly not around or there would have been a squabble.

A female Mute Swan was stranded in the Italian Garden, having been chased up there from the Long Water by the killer swan, who was cruising around with his family in the water below.

She is not actually in much trouble. She can wait till the killer has moved away and then get down via the marble fountain, an awkward series of jumps but swans do it. Or when the park has closed she can make an enormous effort and take off from the ground -- easier for females, as they are smaller. Meanwhile, there is plenty of algae in the fountain pools for her to eat. Swans sometimes stay here for days, apparently by choice.

A Cormorant shone in the sunlight on a post at Peter Pan.

The catalpa trees by the Italian Garden are now full of Rose-Ringed Parakeets eating the beans out of the long pods.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was in the same place as yesterday. I hope she doesn't adopt it as her usual perch, as it's impossible to get a good picture of her there.

A Carrion Crow washed in the Serpentine, shook some of the water off, and flapped soggily away.

A Wood Pigeon looked peeved. It had flown into a privet bush by the bridge hoping to find some berries, but they had all been eaten.

A Long-Tailed Tit perched in a nearby holly tree.

The familiar Robin in the Flower Walk comes out like clockwork every time I go past.

There are still some Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonflies on the edge of the Serpentine. They like to sun themselves on the gravel rolled into the tarmac, which evidently resembles their natural habitat.

Several Speckled Wood butterflies were flying around the Rose Garden. They appear early and late, as they produce two generations a year. The caterpillars feed on a few kinds of grass which evidently they can find among the rich variety of grasses in the park.

Sunshine makes pretty rainbows in the fountains in the Italian Garden. Like all rainbows, they are dreadfully hard to photograph and this is the best I could manage.

The elusive Wren

The yew hedges in the Flower Walk are full of Wrens, but you hardly ever see them. Today one obligingly came into sight.

The dominant Robin waited on the railings for his daily treat ...

... and another at Mount Gate was also looking expectant.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was deep in the leaves of the horse chestnut tree and it was impossible to get a clear view of her.

After a chilly morning the sunshine was warm enough to start a Feral Pigeon sunbathing under the Henry Moore sculpture ...

... and also the resident Grey Heron, not looking its most elegant in this pose.

Ian Young found a returning Common Gull at the Round Pond. They don't usually arrive till well into the autumn.

Pigeon Eater, in his usual place by the Dell restaurant, was looking annoyed ...

... because the shore had been invaded by a mob of Herring Gulls and there were too many for him to chase away. Evidently someone had been throwing food around and they had arrived en masse from the moored boats where they usually perch. This picture shows how the overwhelming majority of them are young birds, most of which will have come from their breeding ground nearby in Paddington.

A young Moorhen climbed around in the reed bed next to the bridge. It is from the nest that the Moorhens build every year in a disused drainpipe which you can see looking down from the bridge.

The Coots under the Italian Garden are now down to two chicks from the original four. This is probably the work of the large pike which lurk up the north end of the Long Water.

The algae here which annoy the park keepers are a boon to fishing birds, as small fish lurk under their shade. A Great Crested Grebe darted about looking for them.

The grebe chicks on the Serpentine, older than those on the Long Water, are beginning to grow little black crests.

The Shoveller drake at the Vista is not alone.

There was a female at Peter Pan.

Yesterday I saw a Red Admiral butterfly perching on the trunk of an evergreen oak in the Rose Garden, as shown in the thumbnail for this video. Today there were two Speckled Wood butterflies in the same place, and I wondered what the attraction was. Then I found some wasps, and realised that they were all drinking sweet sap oozing out of cracks in the bark.

There are Speckled Woods all over the park now. This rather tattered one was on a leaf by the Round Pond.

Making friends with Robins

The Little Owl at the Round Pond had found yet another place in her horse chestnut tree, where she could only be seen by looking almost straight up.

The Hobbies could be heard and distantly seen some way to the north, but there was no chance of a picture.

Long-Tailed Tits were working through the insect-ravaged box tree by the bridge, probably capturing the Box Tree Moths which as larvae had mostly killed it.

A Robin in a flower bed in the Flower Walk came out to take pine nuts thrown on the ground.

The dominant Robin by the Queen's Gate crossing and his presumed mate both came to my hand from opposite sides of the path within a minute of each other. I can't feed them and photograph them at the same time.

There is a yew hedge here and a Blackbird was under it making a fuss about something.

A Grey Wagtail hunted for insects around the pool at the top of the Dell waterfall.

Mark Williams sent a pleasing picture of two Starlings on the trolleys of his local Aldi supermarket planning a raid.

A Grey Heron muttered to itself and preened at the top of a small lime tree beside the Serpentine.

One of the Great Crested Grebe chicks was pestering its father on one side of the boathouse.

On the other side the other chick was busy fishing by itself. I didn't see it catching anything, but it's good that it's showing enterprise so early.

The father of the chicks on the Long Water was fishing at the Vista ...

... while the chicks waited on the far side.

The Coot chicks from the nest on the Long Water under the edge of the Italian Garden were already out on the water and being fed by their parents.

A pair of Gadwalls browsed under a chain at Peter Pan.

The chains date from a time when boats were allowed on to the Long Water, and were meant to stop people from going beyond Peter Pan or landing there. Now the barrier is at the bridge.

Large carp clustered around the Serpentine outflow. Some of the carp in the lake weigh more than 40 pounds. They can live for over 40 years, growing larger the whole time.

These are probably in the same place as the first carp to be brought to Britain, when monks imported them from mainland Europe in the mid-1300s to stock fishponds for their Friday meals. At this time the area was the Manor of Hyde, farmland belonging to the monks of Westminster Abbey. Old maps from before the time the Serpentine was created show fishponds in the Westbourne river exactly where this picture was taken.

A Migrant Hawker dragonfly perched on a clump of blackberries at the Vista.

Two Red Admiral butterflies were chasing each other in the Rose Garden shrubbery.

A clump of Michaelmas daisies attracted hoverflies. This is a Tapered Dronefly, Eristalis pertinax. (Another less good photograph showed that it didn't have a black stripe on its face, which is how you tell it from the Common Dronefly E. tenax.)

An apple with one bite out of it left on a table at the Lido restaurant promptly attracted the attention of a bunch of Common Wasps.

New Coot chicks

The Hobbies are still here, hunting over Kensington Gardens. It's not clear what they are finding, since the House Martins have gone and there can't be many dragonflies left. I got a picture of an adult -- you can see the red feathers around its feet --

... and Ahmet Amerikali got a closer shot of one of the young ones.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was completely hidden when I went to the tree in the morning, but fortunately came out later. No day is complete without a sight of this lovely creature.

The Flower Walk was loud with competing Robins. This is one at the east end, behind the Albert Memorial.

The Grey Wagtail swept along the edge of the Serpentine and could be seen later beside the Lido restaurant terrace. It's always the same young one, evidently hatched in the nest beside the Dell waterfall.

The hens in the allotment are rather a plain selection. The previous ones, of very varied breeds, were killed by a fox last year. Perhaps we'll get some more colourful ones soon.

The three young Grey Herons in the nest in the island gave their parent a very hard time when it arrived to feed them.

Pigeon Eater was away from his usual place, leaving it free for the strange discoloured Lesser Black-Back with dark eyes.

Cormorants occupied the posts left from the defunct tern raft on the Long Water. Part of its remaining frame can be seen but even that is gradually sinking.

One of the Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Serpentine watched its mother dive. It immediately dived to follow her. This is how they learn to fish.

One of the very late Coot nests on the Long Water has hatched out, the one under the Italian Garden. Four brand new chicks can be seen.

This idyllic-looking spot is actually quite dangerous, as the north end of the Long Water has several large pike in residence. Only one chick survived from the previous brood, and the Moorhens in the opposite corner ...

... have only one survivor too.

No wonder that the relatively safe Italian Garden pools are crowded with nesting Coots.

The other active nest, at Peter Pan, hasn't hatched yet. 

This nest is ornamented with the usual snack packets and miscellaneous junk, in contrast to the one by the Italian Garden whose occupants have left it quite plain. I did see one of them playing with a crisp packet, but this was discarded.

There is one other young Coot chick, seen here on its nest across the water from Peter Pan.

A Grey Squirrel extracted sweet chestnuts from their spiky case and ate them. It didn't seem to suffer from the spikes, which are quite sharp to a human hand.

A Speckled Wood butterfly rested on a leaf at the Vista. There are still quite a lot of these along the Long Water and in the Flower Walk.