Magpie rinse and repeat

When Magpies wash, they have a brief rinse in the water, fly up to a tree to shake themselves dry, then return to the water and dry themselves again, several times.

A Jay waited in front of the yellow leaves of a Lombardy poplar. In autumn, when not much is happening, at least you get pretty backgrounds.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery wasn't visible the first time I went past, but appeared later in her usual lime tree.

I walked past the Robin at Peter Pan without seeing it, but a sharp call brought me to order and it came out for two pine nuts.

The Coal Tit pair were chasing each other around the trees in the Dell, but the male stopped in a willow for long enough to be photographed.

Pigeon Eater came ashore with a hungry look in his eye.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage had been pushed aside by the Herring Gull again ...

... but he was holding his own at the other end of the platform, pointedly ingnoring the intruder.

The mysteriously arrived Great Crested Grebe teenager is always by the reeds under the Italian Garden, a good fishing spot.

The youngest chick chased a parent past Peter Pan, squeaking loudly.

The two by the bridge were quietly resting, one with each parent. They have reached the stage when they take an active part in the fishing, though probably they're not much help and they are still having to be fed.

The two teenager Mute Swans were together by the boat hire platform.

The family on the Long Water were at the Vista trying to get food from the passing Saturday visitors, with some success.

Canada Geese took over the ruin of the swan nesting raft by the Triangle. It's sinking lower and lower at one end.

A group of Common Pochards at the Lido had a good proportion of females, which is unusual for Pochards where the sex ratio is badly skewed, as you can see in the larger flock on the Long Water. You would suppose that equal numbers of males and females hatch, but that the female are often predated as they nest on the ground.

The flowers in the Rose Garden were busy for the end of October. Honeybees were browsing on the red hot pokers, a yellow variety that flowers later than the ordinary red kind.

A Greenbottle fly rested on an Indian chrysanthemum.

A little Ermine Moth perched on a blade of grass beside the Dell. It flew away before I could get round to the other side for a better picture.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth in the Rose Garden

A Carrion Crow at the Round Pond used the gravel strip as a bathing beach.

On the other side of the pond the young Little Grebe preened in the late afternoon sunshine.

An adult Little Grebe on the Serpentine was too far away for a good picture.

A Jackdaw near the Italian Garden was planning a flight down to grab a peanut before the crows and Magpies snatched it. It chose a good spot and got its peanut.

Most of the Jays don't have this problem, as they will take a peanut from my hand in flight.

Starlings gathered and chattered on the weathervane at the Lido restaurant.

A Blue Tit in the yew in the Dell ...

... and the male Coal Tit were waiting for pine nuts to be put on the railings.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in her usual lime tree.

Ahmet Amerikali was at Rainham Marshes, and sent four pictures: a fine shot of a female Kestrel passing overhead ...

... a male Bearded Tit in the reeds ...

... a female Stonechat ...

... and a Dunnock, I think male from the amount of grey on its head.

The young Grey Heron at the southeast corner of the bridge is ridiculously relaxed about humans. Someone was taking a close-up shot on his phone, holding it just a foot from the bird's face.

The Black Swan and his Mute mate spotted me and hurried over for some sunflower hearts.

Common Pochards rested under a yellow poplar on the Long Water as a Shoveller passed through.

A mild sunny day brought out insects in the Rose Garden, notably a Hummingbird Hawk Moth, Macroglossum stellatarum, feeding on a Baby Sage flower ...

... Honeybees on a clump of Bloodflower or Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica ...

...and what I think is a Rose Chafer beetle, Cetonia aurata, its metallic green colour overwhelmed by its bright orange surroundings. The flowers are 'Florist's Chrysanthemums', which are actually from a different genus, Dendranthema grandiflorum.

Autumn colours

The leaves are now turning to the quiet colours of an English autumn. Here are views of the Long Water looking north from the bridge ...

... and south from the Italian Garden.

A Magpie showed its fine iridescent blue wings and green tail in a withered horse chestnut next to the bridge parapet. When I had given it a peanut and it had flown away ...

... Blue Tits ...

... and a Coal Tit appeared ...

... and there was a momentary glimpse of a Long-Tailed Tit, too brief for a good picture.

The Leaf Miner Moth that is ruining these trees also makes them attractive to insect-eating birds, but it would need armies of tits to eat enough moths to noticeably reduce the damage.

The Coal Tits in the yew tree in the Dell now seem to know that if they pose nicely for a picture they will immediately get pine nuts put on the railings for them.

There was also a Jay here, not a usual place. Most of the Jays are in Kensington Gardens.

Ahmet Amerikali got a fine picture of a Goldcrest in the yew by the bridge, which is a permanent home for them and they nest every year.

A Wood Pigeon ate berries in a nearby holly tree. These are now red and ripe, some overripe. The Wood Pigeon didn't care, and has also been eating them when they were still green and iron-hard.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from her usual lime tree.

The Great Crested Grebes with two chicks at the bridge seem to be making a point of catching fish in front of their offspring and eating them themselves, to encourage the young ones to learn to fish. But the two are fed quite enough to keep them going: they are far from independent yet.

Three more pictures by Ahmet: an adult Little Grebe on the Serpentine going to the island ...

... a Cormorant still finding fish under the Italian Garden, though there are none of a suitable size left in the pools ...

... and a Tufted drake flying over the Long Water.

A Common Pochard in full breeding plumage preened and flapped on the Serpentine.

The Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden, which were a bee magnet, are now mostly over, but the autumn-flowering camellia is now attracting Honeybees ...

... and Common Wasps.

A visit from the Bar-Heads

A pleasant but uneventful day was at least graced by the Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery, who was out enjoying the morning sunshine.

One of the usual Jays perched in a horse chestnut by Temple Gate.

You can see how damaged the leaves are by a combination of the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner moth and the summer drought, and some of the trees are completely leafless. There seems to be nothing that can be done about this pest. The Indian Horse Chestnuts planted along the west side of the West Carriage Drive between the Serpentine Gallery and Mount Gate are unaffected, but they are a smaller species and will never grow as large as the English tree.

However, there is some good news about trees. We lost all the English Elms in 1968 through infestation by the Elm Bark Beetle. Now a resistant strain of elms has been found, and there is an experimental row of them at the western edge of Kensington Gardens which seem to be doing well.

I couldn't see why this Jackdaw was calling so insistently from a treetop beside the Serpentine. It's a bird that says its name, 'Jack, Jack.'

In the Middle Ages many English birds were given personal names: Jack Daw, Mag Pie, Robin Redbreast, Jenny Wren, Philip Sparrow. Sometimes one part of the name survives, sometimes the two have merged.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge ...

... and a Blue Tit in the Rose Garden were impatient at being photographed and wanted their daily pine nuts.

A Grey Wagtail hunted along the edge of the Lido restaurant terrace. Wagtails are often seen at the two lakeside restaurants, where spilt food attracts insects.

A young Great Crested Grebe on the Long Water stretched its wings.

The two ¾ Bar-Headed x ¼ Greylag hybrids were cruising past the island ...

... and came ahore to find a respectable patch of grass. They regularly visit from St James's Park, and the one on the left in the first clip spent June here moulting. A little smaller than Greylags, they are much lighter on their feet and walk swiftly and gracefully. The Bar-Headed Goose is an Indian species, notable for migrating over the Himalayas at very high altitudes.

The smallest Egyptian gosling makes up in determination what it lacks in size, and insistently demanded food. It accepted some sunflower hearts.

Several people have been feeding it to help it grow. Let's hope that it's strong enough to carry the weight of its developing primary feathers and can escape getting 'angel wing'. So far everything seems all right.

The dominant Mute Swans on the Long Water, 3HDW and 4DTT, were by the bridge after successfully expelling some intruders.

The female 4DTT cruised over to the Vista to join her single cygnet 4HTH.

The Black Swan and 4GIQ were on the other side of the bridge with a young Grey Heron that wanted food. However, I don't carry anything a heron would like, so it had to wait for someone else. All the herons hatched in the park are absurdly casual about humans.

Red-Crested Pochards cruised under the bridge. These too are normally very shy, but in the park they have learnt to tolerate people.

A Mallard and a pair of Shovellers rested on the fallen tree at Peter Pan, keeping their distance from a gang of Cormorants at the far end.

The mild temperature brought out a few bees in the Rose Garden. A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on a Bat-Faced Cuphea.

I think these little mushrooms near Temple Gate are Mower's Mushrooms, a name for various similar species that come up on mown lawns after heavy rain.