The hot weather has brought out large numbers of dragonflies, and they were flying round the edge of the Serpentine hunting the multitude of little insects over the water. Here is a close-up of the wonderful wing mechanism of a Black-Tailed Skimmer, with two hinges for each of the four wings so that they can be tilted as well as flexed.

A couple of Feral Pigeons were cooling themselves in the lake.

The young Egyptian Goose that was adopted is growing into a fine blonde bird. I am guessing that it's a female because all the blonde Egyptians on the lake whose sex I know are female, but I may well be wrong.

One of the reasons why Egyptians have done so well here is that even before they are able to fly they have long, strong legs and can often sprint out of danger, an option not available to ordinary geese. The other is that they nest in safe holes in trees, while ordinary geese mostly nest dangerously on the ground -- they will use a tree if the access is easy enough for them, but it has to be very easy for these big clumsy birds with webbed feet that can't grip branches.

More Black-Headed Gulls had arrived on the Serpentine, ready to spend the winter here.

The Ring-Necked Parakeets have started eating unripe berries, which can't be very palatable.

They were also eating unripe crabapples, but were picking out the pips and discarding the pulp.

The Grey Heron under the marble fountain at the Italian Garden is still hoovering up little fish.

The Canada Goose family on the Long Water saw someone at Peter Pan with a bag of food, and hastened over.

The enormous Coot nest next to the Vista is still getting larger. The birds simply can't stop adding to it. It is going to be a bit of a climb for the chicks when they hatch.

The Coot on the nest at the Serpentine outflow was carefully rearranging her eggs.