House Martins massing for departure?

The Reed Warbler at the Italian Garden is still dashing about feeding the chicks. Here it is about to take off ...

... and reaching down to grab a fly off a stem.

A tricoloured Feral Pigeon puffed himself up and strutted about trying to impress females.

The Blackbird family in the Rose Garden is now grown up and the young have dispersed, but Mark Williams got a shot of a younger fledgling being fed by its mother in St James's Park.

He also took an interesting picture in West Hendon. Of twelve window ledges on this building, eleven were occupied by resting House Martins.

There were considerably more House Martins over the Round Pond than usual. It looks as if they are gathering for their return to Africa.

The male Little Owl at the Round Pond was in an awkward spot for a photograph.

So was the female at the Serpentine Gallery.

I though the owlet had left, but it turned up later in the same lime tree as the female.

The Grey Heron at the Lido restaurant was begging along the edge of the terrace.

It occasionally jumps on to the railings, but has not yet got to the stage where it lands on people's tables and grabs their food, like the heron that was such a spectacular nuisance at the Dell restaurant eight years ago (see the blog post for 25 April 2015).

The Great Crested Grebe family preened under the bridge, with the chicks copying their parents.

The other family wasn't visible. They have crossed the lake and are lurking under the bushes.

One of the young Coots at the bridge dived for food. Coots are too buoyant to dive well, and this one is only just learning how to paddle hard to stay submerged.

A young Moorhen, still in drab teenage colours, paddled along the Serpentine. They can swin quite briskly in spite of not having webbed feet.

A Honeybee gathered bright orange pollen from a helenium flower.

There were a lot of Common Carder bees on the agapanthus in the Dell. It's been a very good year for them.

Greenbottle flies browsed on a dwarf eryngium flower, with a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee out of focus in the background.

An apple stuck on the railings for the Rose-Ringed Parakeets provided a feast for wasps.

The pomegranates on the bush behind the Big Bird statue are developing. I don't think they ever ripen fully in the English climate, but possibly they do and are instantly stolen.

Nick Abalov found an impressively huge Giant Polypore fungus near the small playground in Hyde Park.