It's the last day of the current hot spell, with thunderstorms forecast tonight followed by several wet days. The large Greylag family grazed in the shade of the willows beside the Serpentine. Rain will refresh the parched grass for them.
A pair of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls cooled off beside the running water of the Diana fountain.
One of the three Coot chicks at Peter Pan dived in the shallow water at the edge.
The solitary Moorhen chick in the Italian Garden seems to have been abandoned by its parents, which are probably the pair that have five new chicks in the Long Water below. But it's able to feed istelf and seems to be doing well.
Virginia took this picture of a Mandarin drake standing impressively tall.
A Grey Heron stepped delicately across the fallen horse chestnut tree in the Long Water, looking for a gap in the algae where it could watch for fish.
The pair of Blue Tits that pursue us along the path by the Long Water demanding pine nuts are parents.
A fledgling lurked in a tree.
A young Blackcap appeared on the other side of the water.
A Wren paused for a moment in a tree near the Albert Memorial.
The familiar Jay waited patiently while I photographed it, then flew down to take a peanut from my hand -- and for once missed it. We both pretended it hadn't happened, and I gave it an extra large peanut to soothe its ruffled feelings.
A Magpie found plenty to eat in a rubbish bin at the Lido restaurant.
There are odd patches of what look like red algae in the Italian Garden fountains which cast a lurid reflection on the young carp.
A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly perched on a nettle at the foot of Buck Hill.
It's difficult to give an impression of how many Buff-Tailed Bumblebees there are in the park at the moment, but there must have been at least 50 in this patch of Salvia about the size of a pingpong table.
Good to see the Small Tortoiseshell-not the common butterfly it used to be. I've managed to see a couple in the last week.
ReplyDeleteLovely bumblebee video! I wonder if some are White-tailed Bumblebees? Buff-tailed & White-tailed Bumblebee workers can be notoriously difficult to distinguish, whereas males & queens are fairly straightforward.
Not bee weather for the next few days, but when it improves I'll take some close-up still pictures.
DeleteGosh, that's Bumblebee paradise, happily buzzing around.
ReplyDeleteWhere do they go when it is rainy after a spell of warm weather?
The poor Blue Tit looks a fright. Parenthood, I guess.
Salvia, Stachys and Geranium species all seem to be bumblebee magnets, and indeed attract other bees too. There were still quite a few there today in spite of drizzly weather.
DeleteBlue Tits and other small birds get their head feathers abraded by the gaping beaks of their offspring. They look awful but will be fine after the next moult.