Hot and bothered

On a hot day black birds get uncomfortably warm. A Carrion Crow was panting in a hawthorn.

Two Cormorants fidgeted on the fallen poplar in the Long Water.

The Black Swan was sitting inertly on the Serpentine shore. Usually he utters a melodious hoot and comes over for some sunflower seeds, but today he couldn't be bothered to move.

One of the six newest Coot chicks in the Italian Garden fountains preened its downy feathers. We've had five broods of Coots in the four pools but the older family in this pool has grown up and dispersed, so this lot have it to themselves.

A Coot in another pond objected to a Grey Heron.

The Coot nesting on the chain at the island ignored a Cormorant, a heron and a Herring Gull. It's not going to be shifted by anything.

A Mallard at the island has three ducklings, probably the remains of a larger brood as it's a very dangerous place. She had to run the gauntlet past some hungry Herring Gulls.

The dominant Mute Swan and his family have set up a beachhead on the Serpentine side of the bridge from where they can bully the local geese.

The songbirds were lurking in the shade of the bushes and there was little to see, but the Robin in the corkscrew hazel in the Flower Walk was scolding a Magpie.

Ahmet Amerikali found some better birds at Rainham Marshes: a Cetti's Warbler ...

... a Reed Warbler ...

... a young Bearded Tit ...

... and a Little Grebe.

If it was a poor day for small birds it was a good one for insects. There are now a lot of Emperor dragonflies on both lakes. This one was hunting at the Italian Garden ...

... and another flew past Peter Pan.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on a cosmos flower.

The urns in the Italian Garden have been planted with agave and yucca plants, conveniently drought resistant and not in need of watering. Two of the yuccas have put out odd-looking spikes of red flower buds.

Run and Hyde ...

... That's the Epstein sculpture of Pan causing panic beside the South Carriage Drive. The hut is something to do with the summer music festival which ends on Sunday, thank goodness.

An unusual bee

The Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery is still hard to spot, and it took two visits to see it. It's getting calmer about being photographed, and looked curiously down from the chestnut branch at the antics below.

Another family of Blackcaps was dashing around in an elder tree at the southwest corner of the bridge. They were very hard to see here, but I got some sort of picture.

A Reed Warbler perched on a bramble in the scrub to the east of the Lido swimming area.

A Feral Pigeon was recklessly sunbathing in the middle of the busy path by the boat hire platform.

The Grey Heron in the new nest at the east end of the island gazed heavenward as it was persecuted by the chicks.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes displayed on the Serpentine. This is not the pair whose nest was destroyed. Let's hope they can find a reasonable nest site. There are several places on the island behind the wire baskets.

The Coots were building up their new nest on the chain at the bridge. This nest is just as exposed as the ill-fated grebes' nest, but Coots are far better builders than grebes and these nests tend to last. However, any chicks will be at great risk from Herring Gulls perching on the posts.

There's already at least one egg.

A rapid exit of Canada Geese from the Long Water showed that the ferocious Mute Swan was ejecting them. This time he and his family came out under the bridge and herded the intruders on to the shore at the Triangle.

The Tufted Duck was at the swans' nesting island. She still has all her eleven ducklings.

The Lesser Emperor dragonfly was hunting up and down the bridge, and I got a picture of it at the second pass on the south side. There was also at least one Emperor and the usual crowd of Black-Tailed Skimmers, all chasing each other.

A Willow Emerald damselfly perched on a twig at the northwest corner of the bridge.

There was a Seven-Spot Ladybird in the Rose Garden. It's always pleasing to find a native ladybird instead of the numerous Harlequins.

Honeybees browsed busily on a patch of cranesbill in the Flower Walk.

The usual bees were also to be seen in the Rose Garden,  a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in a dahlia ...

... a Common Carder on a white clover flower on the lawn ...

... and a small bee of uncertain species on a coreopsis. Could it be a Sweat Bee of the genus Lasioglossum?

But these paled into insignificance beside a Large Scabious Mining Bee, Andrena hattorfiana, photographed by Benny Hawksbee on the football fields where the Crystal Palace used to stand. It was spotted by his four-year-old son Dylan, who shows a precocious talent for entomology.

This is only the second time one has been seen in Hyde Park. It feeds only on Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis, and a few closely related species.

Another view of the Little owlet

Julia managed to shoot some video of the very shy Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery shortly before sunset yesterday. It was busy preening, so it didn't fly away as soon as it saw the camera. It looks very brown, but I think that's just the warm evening light.

The male Peregrine looked over the ledge of the barracks tower ...

... and a moment later took off, heading in the direction of the Metropole Hilton hotel in the Edgware Road where he has another daytime perch.

One of the Robins from Mount Gate, with head feathers worn by feeding chicks, was looking for insects across the road. Now that it's rained there should be worms available too.

A Jay beside the Long Water was also looking tatty.

At present I'm only seeing one Jackdaw, the one by the Henry Moore sculpture, which comes trotting up every time I pass.

The others may still be bringing up their young. It's odd that, although young Carrion Carows, Jays and Magpies are easy to see, I don't think I've ever seen a young Jackdaw. Yet the population in the park is rising steadily.

The usual male Chaffinch was calling for attention from a lime tree near Mount Gate.

A Feral Pigeon sat in the water at Peter Pan, not washing, just keeping cool. Sometimes they float away, but they can take off from the water -- though the heavier Wood Pigeons can't.

A Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge of the Serpentine, picking small larvae out of the slime.

The young Black-Headed Gulls look handsome in their brown juvenile plumage.

A Grey Heron stood obstinately in the middle of the Serpentine Road, expecting people to go round it.

The geese and swans also have this dangerous habit, but at least a heron can take off vertically with one swish of its big wings.

The adult Greylag Geese on either side of the image here are residents of Hyde Park. But they have learnt that the park is a very dangerous place to bring up young goslings, because of the number of Herring Gulls. So every year these sensible birds go off to nest somewhere safer, and bring in their young -- three of them this year -- as soon as they're able to fly.

The female Mute Swan and her six cygnets preened on the nesting Island in the Long Water.

A Red-Crested Pochard drake at the Vista was in full eclipse. His plumage is exactly the same as a female's now, but his red bill and eyes show his sex.

There are four families of foxes around the Long Water, two on each side. This fox is often seen in the woodland north of the Henry Moore sculpture. Today it came out on the lawn to wander round and have a scratch. No doubt it's covered with fleas, but at least it doesn't seem to have succumbed to the mange which affects a lot of them.

Several Brown Hawker dragonflies could be seen around the Long Water.

There was also a Red-Veined Darter flying under the Italian Garden but I didn't get a picture.

A Red Admiral butterfly rested in the middle of the path.

They are causal about where they stop, and I've had one perching on the camera and on my right hand.

A Common Banded Hoverfly landed on a leaf at Mount Gate.

First clear sight of the Little owlet

This afternoon the Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery came out into full view. It wasn't happy about being photographed and flew away after a few seconds. But the owls do get used to their fame.

A family of Blackcaps were leaping around in a holly tree to the north of Peter Pan. These are two of the young ones.

A serious stare from one.

This tree is where I photographed a family of Greenfinches three days ago, and they were still there. Here is a young one with stains of blackberry juice on its bill.

I met the people making a film about Pigeon Eater. They had been there since early morning and said that he hadn't caught anything yet. Predictably, he was in an irritable mood. First he went for a Grey Heron that was standing on the Dell restaurant roof ...

... then he flew over to a Coots' nest on the far side and had a faceoff with the occupants. It's clear why he was interested in it, as you can just see the little red head of a chick in the nest.

Having been foiled, he made several low passes over the nest, but with both furious parents defending it he didn't have a chance of a snatch.

Yesterday, seeing that the Great Crested Grebes nesting on a chain at the island had eggs in the nest, I asked the people at the boat hire place to be careful and not moor boats where they could knock into the nest. Today I found that they had done exactly that, tying a boat to that very length of chain. As a result the nest had been upset and the eggs lost. The grebes were repairing the damage, but will the female be able to lay more eggs?

This is absolutely typical of the Royal Parks' negligent attitude to wildlife.

The smallest Manadarin duckling on the Round Pond had wandered off by itself yet again.

I wonder whether the failure of Mandarin ducklings to 'imprint' on their mother, so that they would automatically follow her around, is due to the fact that they hatch in a dark hole in a tree and don't get a proper sight of her for a while.

The Tufted ducklings on the Long Water follow their mother obediently, and were skittering around frantically. They can dive well from the moment they come out on to the water.

A gingerish blonde female Mallard could be seen at Peter Pan.

There is still at least one Lesser Emperor dragonfly hunting near the bridge, and it can be seen on both sides at the north end. I didn't get a picture of it, but I did get one of some Common Blue damselflies and one Red-Eyed damselfly at a twig stick out of the water.

A Comma butterfly drank nectar from a buddleia blossom near the bridge steps. 

A Red Admiral sunned itself on a bramble beside the Long Water.

A Common Carder bee fed on a snowberry flower.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee preferred a cosmos.

But I have no idea what this dark wasp is, seen on a Peruvian lily near the Diana fountain.