Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Warning: this video is pretty grisly.

Duncan Campbell found a Sparrowhawk on the ground near the Albert Memorial with a pigeon she had just caught, and filmed her eating her fill and finally carrying it off to save the rest for later. His original video was a quarter of an hour long. Here are some excerpts.

A female Sparrowhawk is just large enough to be able to fly carrying a pigeon. A male isn't, and has to drag the victim into the bushes.

Another notable pigeon killer was surveying his domain from the roof of the Dell restaurant.

His presence had banished the Herring Gulls to a respectful distance, but his son from this year was in the water below, and so was this second-year Lesser Black-Backed Gull examnining a snack packet. I wonder whether it's his offspring from last year. I don't know how long big gulls remain on familiar terms their young, but I don't think it's for very long. The pigeon killer's toleration of his most recent offspring seems exceptional.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was in her usual place.

The Peregrines were on the tower in the morning, but had flown off by the time I got close enough for a picture.

A Magpie enjoyed a bathe in the pool at the top of the Dell fountain.

A Wren made a racket in the leaf yard.

A Blue Tit walked up the underside of a twig looking for insects.

A Cormorant on a post in the Long Water preened in the sunshine.

The collapsed weeping willow at the bridge is a favourite place for Mallards to gather, and a female had come there to rest. Unfortunately she had chosen to do this on the Great Crested Grebes' nest which, though no longer used, is still claimed by its owners. (The bit of blue plastic was certainly put there as an ornament  by a Coot when this was squatting on the nest.)

One of the grebes, passing by, noticed her ...

... and advanced, calling his mate.

The two of them were too much for the duck, which left hastily.

The grebes congratulated each other and did a little maintenance to show the place was theirs.

This isn't a good picture: a hasty snatched shot of a Migrant Hawker dragonfly flying away from the Italian Garden. I didn't have time to turn the speed up on the camera. But it does show that they are still around.

A patch of monkshood in the Rose Garden had a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee climbing in and out of the bells.

The fatsia bush at the bridge hasn't flowered well this year and there are only a few Common Wasps in it.

But the ivy at the back of the Lido is full of flowers and much visited.

There was also a large fly which I think is Tachina fera. It doesn't seem to have a common name.