A hint of autumn

Much cooler today with a sharp wind. It's beginning to feel like autumn, and there were autumn crocuses on the lawn below the Dell.

The wind kept the Little Owls at the Round pond indoors, but at the Serpentine Gallery it was just possible to see the male owl well inside the lime tree.

A Coal Tit hung upside down from a hawthorn twig near the Flower Walk.

A Wood Pigeon revisited its old nest in the pergola in the Rose Garden. The nest is, and always has been, absurdly small for the size of the bird, but a pair succeeded in raising one fledgling in it earlier this year.

Three Magpies bickered in a tree by the Diana fountain. I think the middle one is young and the other two are its parents, and it had been begging long after it should have started finding its own food.

Great Spotted Woodpeckers are often heard in the woodland around the Henry Moore sculpture. There's a breeding pair here -- this is the female -- but they have become harder to see since their favourite half-dead tree fell down.

The old Grey Heron on the lawn below was resting his tired legs again. I haven't been able to find whether herons get arthritis, but I suspect that they do.

The three Great Crested Grebe chicks at the bridge were with their father.

Up the Long Water two of the four were also with their father ...

... while the other two rested under a tree. As they grow up they're becoming less noisy, though there's a frantic clamour if a parent is seen approaching with a fish.

The dominant Mute Swan family spend much of their time begging on the edge of the Serpentine by the Triangle car park. This is a productive place because many visitors are too lazy to walk far from their cars and simply dump food on the shore. At least this time it's healthy birdseed and not the usual white bread which is not good for any birds, especially growing ones.

The cygnet from the island always seems to be on its own, and so far has not been harassed by the murderous male who killed its three siblings.

I think the killer swan has some respect for the cygnet's father, a big strong bird thirsting for revenge. He was on the island.

When there's a niche, birds will fill it. Two Mute Swans have moved into the Italian Garden. You might suppose they would feel cramped here, but there's plenty of algae in the pools to keep them fed.

They are both female and occupy separate pools. This one is quite young, still with a tinge of gray in the bill.

A Speckled Wood butterfly rested in the grass in the sheltered area downhill from the Round Pond.

The long flowering Verbena bonariensis in the Dell is past its best but still attracts bees: a Common Carder ...

... and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.