Insects on the menu

Everywhere you see small birds collecting insects non-stop for their young. The toll on the park's insects must be hundreds of thousands a day, though of course the supply is inexhaustible. A Wren was busy in a ceanothus bush by the Diana fountain ...

... and so was a Pied Wagtail at the Lido.

The Long-Tailed Tit nestlings in the Rose Garden pergola are being fed by four adults -- if a nest is predated the bereaved parents go off to help their nearest relatives. One arrived fully loaded ...

... and after feeding the chicks it flew down along the pergola to hunt for more.

Young Great Tits were begging in the bushes by Peter Pan.

The only unoccupied small bird I saw was a female Greenfinch on the variegated holly between the bridge and the Vista, which is visited by all kinds of birds because it's partly dead and there are lots of bare twigs to perch on. Even she may have been off on a bug hunt, as Greenfinches certainly nest in the park.

I think the Blackbirds in the Rose Garden shrubbery have young, judging by their defensive behaviour when a Magpie is about.

Tom was at Rainham Marshes and saw the Kingfishers mating near their nest hole. They lost their first brood, and it's good to see them having another try.

A Great Crested Grebe picked insects off the Serpentine. You can never see what they're getting -- maybe aquatic larvae just beneath the surface -- but they're certainly finding something.

The five Coot chicks on the waterfront by the Peter Pan statue are doing well. It's quite a safe place with plenty of overhanging bushes to hide under.

But the Mute Swans have lost one cygnet and are down to six. The north end of the Long Water, an ideal spot in many respects, has one serious danger. Several large pike lurk under the edge of the Italian Garden ready to snap up any small water birds.

There was a kerfuffle on the gravel strip, masked by the plants that have grown here, but there was a momentary glimpse of an Egyptian Goose chasing another off.

Then a pair emerged with four small goslings. They must be the pair who nest near the Henry Moore sculpture, which is on the shore above the gravel.

On the south shore of the Serpentine you could see the eldest Greylag gosling ...

... the youngest ...

... and the two in between.

The five Mallard duckings which a heroic mother somehow managed to protect from the numerous Herring Gulls and Carrion Crows are now nearly grown up, though their flight feathers aren't yet fully out. They are still always together in a gang.

Another sighting by Tom at Rainham: a fine shot of a Brown Argus butterfly on the river wall.