The last warm Sunday

On the last warm Sunday of the year the park was crowded and there wasn't much to see, so I'm afraid that this post will be dull. But at least the Great Crested Grebes with one chick at the bridge provided some action. The father wanted to preen, but the chick wanted to climb on his back and have a rest.

The mother chased off a Coot.

There was a family of Moorhens at the Lido, where the footpath is open again after the swimming season, with three teenagers staring to get their adult red bills.

The single cygnet on the Long Water was with a group of other Mute Swans, but keeping slightly apart from them.

A Cormorant was backlit on a post at the bridge.

Another exchanged hostile stares with a Herring Gull on a boathouse roof.

Pigeon Eater rested on the Dell restaurant roof, digesting a large lunch.

Another Lesser Black-Backed Gull was finishing his leftovers when a Magpie tried to take some. It was sent off easily enough, and the gull resumed its meal.

A Grey Heron looked for fish among the tangled branches of the collapsed willow at the bridge.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in an awkward place and it was impossible to get an unobstructed picture.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks. Usually he takes no notice of events on the ground, but today he noticed that he was being photographed. At a height of 300 ft he wasn't worried.

A Jay waited in brown maple leaves at Temple Gate.

In the big yew tree in the Dell a Blue Tit ...

... and a Coal Tit came out for pine nuts.

In the other yew a squirrel was scolding something I couldn't see.

The fox near the Vista really seems to enjoy public attention, and the resultant snacks thrown to it.

The arbutus tree at the southeast corner of the bridge is thick with fruit, and a few were already ripe and red. It bears flowers at the same time as the fruit, which takes a year to develop and ripen.

Manouevres at the bridge

The Great Crested Grebes with the single newest chick came down to the bridge, wanting to reach the better fishing ground on the other side. But they were opposed by the pair already in possession of the area, and at the beginning of the clip you can the grebe going into the threat posture with head lowered. The encounter failed at once and they had to go back.

This is one of the other pair, with a larger chick in tow, countering their advance. Chicks always attend these disputes, and so learn adult behaviour.

Two chicks watched from the other side of the bridge.

The two bigger Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep have now lost almost all their juvenile down and are getting into the teenage stage.

The small one is some way behind. It was with its mother.

The father has an odd pattern on his face, with the usual brown eye ring broken up into a few dark marks. 

A young Grey Heron preened on dead branches in a holly tree beside the Long Water.

An adult flew over the little stream in the Dell.

A Rose-Ringed Parakeet ate the fruit in the big yew tree. They are messy eaters, chewing fruit for a moment to extract a bit of juice and then discarding it. This habit makes them very destructive, as they get through far more fruit than other birds.

One of the Blue Tits came out on the railings to apply for pine nuts.

The Coal Tits at the southwest corner at the bridge haven't been showing recently, and my last picture was taken in March. But today there was one waiting to take a pine nut from the railings.

One of the inevitable Jays was waiting at Mount Gate.

A pair of Jackdaws examined a nest hole in one of the old chestnut trees by the Serpentine Gallery. But this is the Little Owls' nest hole, and they'd get a nasty surprise if they tried to move in.

The male owl was in his usual plane tree a few yards away.

A male Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over and landed briefly in the top of a lime.

A Starling at the Lido restaurant tasted a pot of tartare sauce. It didn't like it, and peevishly turned the pot over.

The Grey Wagtail was again looking for insects in the slime under the Italian Garden. There are several snails in this picture. I think they may have been killed by the toxin from the cyanobacteria. A dead Mallard was floating in the water nearby, also probably poisoned.

The fox by the Vista was dozing, but got up to take some peanuts.

A nasty shade of turquoise

A Grey Wagtail hunting on the thick smelly mat of algae under the Italian Garden found a noisome larva. It seems that the problem with blue-green cyanobacteria is getting worse every year, and only moderately warm weather is needed to bring the stuff up. But there's really nothing that can be done about this, as any countermeasures would wreck the delicate ecology of the lake.

A young Blackbird, still with some gingery juvenile feathers, came down to the Dell stream to have a drink and wash its face.

A Blue Tit ...

... and a Coal Tit were in a sycamore sapling. They still haven't found a comfortable place to perch after the wanton destruction of the corkscrew hazel bush.

A Robin at Mount Gate was probably one of this year's young ones, with fresh adult plumage.

One of the regular Robins in the Flower Walk checked the sky overhead to see if it was safe to come over for a pine nut.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was showing off the magnificent eyebrows he inherited from his father, who was the smallest Little Owl with the biggest eyebrows I've ever seen.

It's impossible to go anywhere between the Flower Walk and the bridge without being picked up by the four Jays insistently demanding peanuts.

You don't often get a Carrion Crow and a Great Crested Grebe in the same picture. They were at Fisherman's Keep, and completely ignored each other. They live in different worlds.

The grebes from the east end of the island were each taking care of one chick. These two were not far from their nest ...

... and the others were at the far end of the island. The chick seemed uncomfortably close to a Cormorant, but in fact I've never seen much conflict between the species. A grebe is much quicker off the mark than a heavy Cormorant.

A chick on the Long Water got too pushy with a parent and was chased away.

One of the young Grey Herons from the fifth nest was fishing from the jetty at the Lido.

They are entirely independent now, and if you see a heron in that nest it's always an adult.

A Honeybee browsed on lantana flowers in the Rose Garden.

I think this black bee on a Michaelmas daisy is a Carpenter Bee, some species of Xylocopa. It wouldn't pose for a better picture and soon vanished into the dense clump. Later: a good suggestion that it might be Andrena scotica.

The gaudy flowers planted to cheer up the drab view of the bandstand lavatories include this strange Bird of Paradise Flower, Strelitzia reginae.

Chiffchaff in an oak

A Chiffchaff was calling and bouncing around in the top of an oak at the Triangle, and by chance came into view for just long enough for one snatched picture.

In the Flower Walk, that look that tells you to put down the camera and produce some pine nuts.

A Blue Tit in the yew in the Dell was also expecting prompt service.

A Jay rummaged for insects in wood chips laid down around the statue of Peter Pan.

Starlings at the Lido restaurant waited on the weathervane.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was on the usual branch in the plane tree.

At the Dell restaurant, Pigeon Eater strode up to chase rivals away from a bit of flatbread.

The Great Crested Grebe family from the north side of the island were by the reed bed east of the Lido.

The young Moorhen by the island looked round from the kerb. It's getting its adult yellow legs.

Cormorants clustered on the fallen poplar on the east side of the Vista.

It was a busy scene, with the Black Swan and 4GIQ at the edge ...

... and the single cygnet alone as usual, with no sign of its parents who were last seen on the other side of the bridge.

A Red-Crested Pochard drake, now in his smart breeding plumage, washed and preened, fluffing up his ginger bouffant with a foot.

A Tufted drake was well on his way to full breeding plumage with bright white sides.

More Shovellers have arrived.

The fox by the Vista is now well used to people leaning over the railings and throwing him food, and doesn't flinch even when a dog goes by, safely kept away by the railings.

A squirrel in the Dell reached down a willow twig to eat the tender leaves at the tip. Willow leaves are also liked by swans and geese.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden.