Long-Tailed Blue butterfly

Today's most interesting find was not a bird but a butterfly. It was flitting around the Rose Garden and I thought it was a late Common Blue. It settled on a rose bush for five seconds and I got a hasty shot.

When I got home and looked at the picture, it was a Long-Tailed Blue -- note the streamers on its hindwings. This is a fairly uncommon species in Britain, though some were seen in Sussex two weeks ago. It may have been blown across the Channel by yesterday's strong east wind.

It was a mostly wet day, which didn't discourage a Robin from singing on a bare twig in the Rose Garden.

Another perched among hawthorn berries near the Italian Garden.

A Coal Tit followed me along the Flower Walk from Queen's Gate to the Albert Memorial, coming down for pine nuts on the way. Here it is in the corkscrew hazel bush.

When I came back that way three hours later it was waiting for me in a variegated holly bush behind the Memorial, and collected some more.

During a dry interval the male Little Owl at Speke came out of his hole in the chestnut tree ...

... and the teenager at the Round Pond could just be seen looking out of the small lime.

A Pied Wagtail was dashing all over the grass beside the pond. It wouldn't come close for a better picture.

A Carrion Crow struck lucky with a bit of bacon at the Dell restaurant, and took it to the pool to dunk and make it less salty.

A Common Gull interrupted the continuous line of Cormorants on the posts at Peter Pan.

After a heavy shower Cormorants dried their wings on posts next to the Serpentine bridge.

The dominant Mute Swan pair seem to have picked up a sixth teenage cygnet, which can just be seen in the background by the bridge.

The female and a young one went right to the far end of the Serpentine.

It looks as if they mean to try claiming the whole lake. There were only a dozen other swans on the Serpentine, much fewer than usual. It would not be the first time a pair has dominated both the Long Water and the Serpentine. Two pairs have managed it in recent decades. A particularly ferocious couple held it for years. They were known as William and Mary.

Meanwhile, the male swan from the Italian Garden went down on to the Long Water and cruised around near Peter Pan. He has designs too, but I don't think the dominant pair are going to let him in.

A Pochard drake cruised past the Vista.

The rain has brought up some fair-sized mushrooms in the Rose Garden with caps over three inches across. As usual I don't know what they are.

One of them was broken, so I turned it over for a picture of the underside.

Update: thanks for Mario for identification. It's the Stubble Rosegill, Volvariella gloiocephala, now renamed Volvopluteus gloiocephalus.