The lure of pine nuts

A Blue Tit perched among rose hips in the Rose Garden and ate a pine nut it took from my hand.

A Great Tit arrived for its share.

The male Coal Tit in the Dell appeared in the big yew tree to collect pine nuts from the railings. These expensive little nuts are the best possible bribe for getting pictures.

Starlings preened and chattered on the Lido restaurant terrace as they waited to raid a table.

A Grey Wagtail ate a Willow Emerald damselfly it had caught at the Peter Pan waterfront.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine was on his current favourite branch in the plane tree. Fairly soon he's going to get bored with perching in the same place and move, and there will be a serious hunt to find him again.

Pigeon Eater, resting on the roof of the Dell restaurant ...

... was keeping out of sight of two young Lesser Black-Backed Gulls which had been begging at him. One of them may be his, perhaps even both, but they are supposed to be finding their own food now.

I thought the latest brood of Grey Herons were independent now, but when I passed the island there was the familiar clattering from their nest and one of the young birds could be seen. Whether its parents are still feeding it is unclear, it may just be trying it on like those young gulls.

A heron at the southwest corner of the bridge often perches on the top of a holly tree.

Cormorants returned from fishing to dry on the posts at the Serpentine island.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick on the Serpentine preened and flapped its little wings.

The three on the Long Water were wandering around separately and didn't make a good picture, but the Little Grebe chicks came out from the willow tree at the bridge ...

... where a parent was fishing a short way off. It's odd that we never see both parents looking after the chicks together. Probably we see both separately, but I can't tell them apart.

The Mute cygnet on the Long Water was alone again, and I couldn't distinguish its parents among the two dozen adults on the Long Water.

People have reported seeing a female Scaup, but I'm fairly sure that what they have seen is the Pochard x Tufted Duck hybrid, here seen on the Long Water.

The breeding success of the Mandarins has distributed them all over the lake. These two were on the landing stage by the Diana fountain.

A squirrel clung on tight as it reached down to drink from the Huntress fountain. The water is fairly foul, but the nearest clean water in the lake is too far away to be worth the hike.

Swan manoeuvres

There has been an upset in the established order of the Mute Swans. Until recently the Long Water was the established territory of the new boss swan 4HDW and his mate 4DTT, the widow of the previous boss 4DTH. All intruders were chased back under the bridge. But for a couple of days there has been quite a crowd here, and today they were joined by the Black Swan and his mate 4GIQ. He was having a faceoff with a Grey Heron ...

... and when 4HDW and 4DDT's cygnet arrived he shooed it away.

Meanwhile 4HDW and 4DTT were at Peter Pan by themselves, clearly having lost some kind of contest and preening to console themselves. Is the Black Swan trying to take over the Long Water?

The motley crew of Cormorants, Moorhens, Mallards, Tufted Ducks and Common Pochards on the fallen tree at Peter Pan were joined by a Red-Crested Pochard drake, seen above the flying Mallard in this picture.

Two of the three Great Crested Grebe chicks chased their mother past the Vista.

The two from the nest on the north side of the island were resting by the Lido restaurant.

The Little Grebes were under the bridge. The chicks are now almost as large as their parents and eating substantial fish.

Pigeon Eater gave a food container by the Dell restaurant a cursory check before going back to hunting.

Two Grey Wagtails were hunting insects on the edge of the restaurant terrace, an adult and a young one. The young bird is already independent and no longer being fed. 

It flew off to the other end of the terrace. Spilt food from the restaurant brings plenty of insects, and there are often wagtails here and at the Lido restuarant.

A Blue Tit waited among rose hips in the Rose Garden.

The young Robin is already coming out of the flower bed to take pine nuts from the path.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge has been a regular customer for two years.

A Jay on the other side of the path had a background of mauve autumn crocuses.

There are only a few olives in this tree by the Lido restaurant, and a Wood Pigeon was struggling to reach any of them.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down gravely from the plane tree.

Common Carder bees are fast moving and restless, and only spend a few seconds on each sunflower in the Rose Garden before flying off to the next -- unlike the large bumblebees which go carefully over the whole flower and may spend several minutes on one.

Another was browsing on something I had never heard of, a Seven Son Flower. There are several large bushes newly planted in the circle in the Rose Garden, conveniently flowering in autumn to suit the bees as other flowers wither. It's a Chinese species and, as so often with numbered plants, the number is wrong -- as you can see the flowers form in clusters of six.

A much needed wet day

The first proper rainy day in weeks brought out Blackbirds all over the park to search for worms in the softened soil.

This is an immature male. He'll get his adult yellow bill and eye ring next year.

Surprisingly, the female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was out. The thick foliage of the plane tree gives some shelter from the rain.

A Jay in a nearby lime had also stayed dry ...

... and so had the Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge, where the thick brambles give excellent shelter.

The young Robin in the Rose Garden is beginning to get red feathers.

A Great Tit waited among rose hips.

The Coal Tits in the Dell came down from the shelter of their yew tree.

The other big gulls envy Pigeon Eater, who has twenty years' experience and can catch a Feral Pigeon whenever he wants. They often try to copy him, but seldom succeed. I've seen this Lesser Black-Back at the Triangle eyeing pigeons before, but this is the first time I've seen a successful kill. His mate circles him, nodding upwards to say 'Im your mate, let me have some.' I'm sure he will when he's eaten enough.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull is accustomed to begging from the people on the benches at Fisherman's Keep, but there was no one there except me so he tried his luck. I gave him a shelled peanut.

A young Grey Heron at the Triangle had got quite soggy.

The lamp posts at the bridge are often used as a vantage point by herons.

This one has a foot on the photoelectric cell, not providing enough shade to make the lamp switch on. But there are reports from Canada of Red-Winged Blackbirds deliberately shading cells with an outstretched wing so that the lamp comes on and keeps them warm.

The Great Crested Grebe family from the Long Water ...

... and the Little Grebes were both on the Serpentine side of the bridge. They were quite close together but there was no conflict.

The Black Swan had gone the other way on to the Long Water. He saw me and promptly came over for some sunflower hearts.

The mother Mute Swan 4DVZ and her two teenage cygnets preened in the drizzle at Fisherman's Keep as a Grey Heron stalked past.

The Greylag Goose family cruised past in an orderly fashion. There are two pairs of adults here as well as the young geese, but they are probably all related.

Canadas took advantage of the absence of people and dogs to come ashore near the Triangle and browse on what grass was left. The grass is already beginning to recover from the drought and their are some greenish patches.

Owl in two sizes

A Rose-Ringed Parakeet was eating the red fruits of the big yew tree in the Dell. They are messy feeders and tend to waste a lot.

In the other yew at the corner, a Blue Tit ...

... and a Coal Tit were waiting impatiently for their pine nuts.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge looked up in annoyance ...

... at a Jay perched on a branch overhead.

A Chiffchaff flitted through the trees on the other side of the path, hard to see among the twigs.

A Starling on a big flower pot at the Lido restaurant loudly addressed the other Starlings. Was it telling them that it wass the boss?

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from the plane tree during a sunny spell.

When I came back three hours later he was in the same place, but it had clouded over and he was feeling a bit chilly and had fluffed himself up. You wouldn't think it was the same bird.

A young Grey Heron was fishing beside the half-timbered boathouse. It's not as good a place as the other boathouse where fish can swim in and out under the walls, but the fishing spots here are owned by senior herons so it has to make do with second best.

There was a motley collection on the fallen tree at Peter Pan: a Grey Heron, a Cormorant, Egyptian Geese, Pochards, Tufted Ducks, a Shoveller (swimming away below the Egyptians) and a Black-Headed Gull.

The Great Crested Grebes with three chicks on the Long Water have been staying in the shelter of a big poplar overhanging the water. Now their parents have judged that it's safe to bring them out on the open water to a good fishing spot.

They are definitely not the same as the grebes from the nest on the north side of the Serpentine island. These were out today as well, by the reed bed east of the Lido.

The Little Grebes were under the bridge. A chick was preening while waiting for a parent to arrive with a fish ...

... which caused a wild flurry.

A male Migrant Hawker dragonfly hunted over the reeds by the bridge.

Common Carder bees are all over the park, here on lavender at the east end of the Serpentine ...

... and vervain in a planter in the Italian Garden.