A very late young Robin

The Little Grebe family remained under the willow tree at the bridge. Occasionally an adult and one of the chicks would emerge for a moment.

They were sharing the space with a Coot and its chick, which could be seen from the path but the grebes were hidden in the leaves. 

There was also a Black-Headed Gull hanging around hoping to grab a fish from one of the grebes. It was passing the time by catching midges. At 20 seconds into this clip it missed a Common Blue damselfly which dodged nimbly out of the way.

I heard that there were two Little Grebes on the Round Pond and went up, but they had gone. Very likely the teenager seen on the Serpentine yesterday was one of them. There was no sign of them here either today. They may have come up from St James's Park and returned there.

However, the eleven Mandarin teenagers were visible all around the edge of the pond.

A Great Crested Grebe chick on the Serpentine had a vigorous preening session and a good flap.

Its mother kept an eye on it. This is the single surviving chick from the nest under the Dell restaurant balcony.

The two chicks from the east end of the island could be seen from across the lake in their usual place.

But the newest family remained hidden in the bushes and wire baskets surrounding the island.

One of the young Grey Wagtails perched on a basket. It's already independent but still very pale and hasn't yet grown its adult yellow feathers.

Moorhens searched for food on the lower bowl of the marble fountain in the Italian Garden, with algae above and below. The northern end of the Long Water is a mess at the moment, but the promised rain should clear it up.

A party of Cormorants settled on the fallen tree at Peter Pan, displacing most of the Pochards.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull looked out over Fisherman's Keep from his favourite post. The ugly proliferation of notices round the lake has at least benefited the gulls.

The male Little Owl was in the lime tree that is often visited by both of the pair.

A very late young Robin, still half in juvenile plumage, appeared in a flower bed in the Flower Walk.

The big pyracantha bush at the Queen's Gate crossing had an adult Robin ...

... a Blue Tit ...

... and several Great Tits.

A young Wood Pigeon on the hedge below reached for a berry.

A late and slightly tattered Willow Emerald damselfly rested on a twig in the Dell.

Another Little Grebe

A surprise today: another Little Grebe, a teenager, on the Serpentine. 

It was diving busily and completely ignoring the people who were looking at it on the shore. Did the adult pair on the Long Water, at present with small chicks, breed earlier in the year, or did this one fly in from somewhere?

The family on the Long Water have stayed under the collapsed willow by the bridge, a good spot as the tree gives excellent cover and there are plenty of small fish among the submerged branches. Occasionally one or two come out in the open and can be photographed from not too far away.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine stood up to shake out his wings.

The staff of the boat hire service on the lake have powerboats with 55 horsepower outboard motors and race about like complete hooligans, endangering humans and birds alike and raising an enormous wake. A Moorhen and her chick on the edge by the island were disturbed by the crashing waves.

A teenage Moorhen wandered along a floating branch in the Long Water. It's just beginning to develop its adult red bill.

There was a large mob of Coots on the Long Water. Every year there are more of these prolific birds, at the expense of the Moorhens which they persecute.

The Greylag family group was resting on the edge at Fisherman's Keep. It includes several adults as well as the young ones, all presumably related as they always stick together.

The four Egyptian goslings were nearby with their devoted mother.

One of the Cormorants at the island, apparently always the same one, likes balancing precariously on a chain even when there is a stable post to stand on.

Pigeon Eater was dozing on the Dell restaurant roof, probably after a large lunch, with his mate preening beside him.

A Black-Headed Gull turned downwind and was ruffled by the brisk breeze.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery appeared in her usual lime tree in the afternoon.

A couple of Carrion Crows enjoyed the spray from the marble fountain in the Italian Garden.

This Magpie near the Buck Hill shelter had been given a walnut. If they are spoilt with expensive treats they'll start scorning the humble peanuts I give them.

A Jay waiting in a willow looked to be a young one, immaculate unlike the adults worn threadbare by raising them.

The usual Robin in the Flower Walk has also lost a lot of feathers. There are two Robins in this section, both tatty and almost certainly a pair, and although the breeding season is long over they haven't yet started fighting each other. Some of the Robins are just beginning to sing again.

The durable strawflowers in the Rose Garden are much visited by hoverflies. This is a European Drone Fly, Eristalis arbustorum, which has been more numerous this year than the Common Drone Fly E. tenax.

A closer view of the Little Grebes

The Little Grebe pair and their four chicks, previously only visible at a distance on the Long Water, came right up to the bridge and could be filmed looking down from the parapet. I've left the noisy soundtrack of traffic and passers by unchanged so that you can hear the chicks squeaking.

Later they all crossed the lake to the weeping willow on the other side.

This fish was right at the limit of what a Great Crested Grebe chick that size could swallow, and its mother had to keep picking it up and presenting it before the chick got it down.

A Cormorant in the Italian Garden had no difficulty in swallowing a large carp. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for this picture.

A Coot on the Long Water confronted a Black-Headed Gull which had occupied its nest. For a moment it looked as if the gull would win ...

... but the angry Coot soon sent it off.

Three Mute Swans flew up the Serpentine in close formation ...

... and a skein of Greylag Geese passed the big trees by the boathouses.

The Reed Warblers are still here, and Ahmet got a picture of one of them by the Diana fountain.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in the big plane tree.

A Carrion Crow landed on the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden carrying a crisp. Crows don't like crisp things ...

... so the snack was dunked in the water to make it acceptably soggy.

Two Jackdaws turned up on the lawn nearby and set to work opening the peanuts I gave them.

One of the tatty Jays in the Flower Walk was also waiting for one ...

... and a Blue Tit came out for a pine nut.

Long-Tailed Tits were at work in an almost leafless horse chestnut tree hit by both drought and leaf miner moth.

A Great Tit waited among ripening holly berries near Temple Gate.

A Common Carder bee browsed on yet another kind of vervain in a planter in the Italian Garden, Tuberous Vervain, Verbena rigida. I had no idea there were so many species of this plant.

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.