Attack of the 50 ft pumpkin

There was a good view of the Little owlet in a horse chestnut tree at the Round Pond.

Its father was in the same tree, at a discreet distance to avoid being bothered, and was having a doze.

A Chaffinch hopped around under a tree in the Rose Garden, calling loudly. It was looking for insects.

A female Blackcap ...

... and a young Long-Tailed Tit could be seen in the half-dead hawthorn tree across the path from the Henry Moore sculpture.

Mark Williams sent a picture of a young Mistle Thrush in Regent's Park. We've hardly had any this year, though there has been a fair number of Song Thrushes.

Two Feral Pigeons fought beside the Serpentine Road.

A Moorhen rested on the sun-warmed edge of the Serpentine.

The Mute Swan with one cygnet at the east end of the lake was keeping a careful watch on the young one. I think it's the swan that nested by the landing stage, which has gone round to the other side of the one that nested at the Lido restaurant ...

... and this was not far away from the original nest site. Cygnets, like all young waterfowl, need to supplement their vegetable diet with extra protein for growth. They get this by eating insects and small water creatures. It was picking off midges flying low over the water.

In this picture of the Black Swan you can see the midges just above their reflections.

The Egyptian Goose on the north shore still has seven goslings, which is good going for a brood in such a dangerous place. She guided them past a swan, the least of their dangers but still likely to peck at them.

Bees on the move: a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee visited the catmint patch in the Rose Garden ...

... and a Honeybee had finished with one cranesbill flower and went over to the next one.

Until 1536 Hyde Park was the Manor of Hyde, a tract of farmland belonging to the monks of Westminster Abbey. They had fishponds beside the little Westbourne river that crossed the land, supplying carp for their Friday meals. In 1536 King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and seized their possessions, and this became his private hunting park. In 1727 the river was dammed to create the Serpentine lake. Now the little stream in the Dell is the only open stretch of the river, just 50 yards long. It's full of carp, and some of them may be the descendants of the medieval fish.

A giant pumpkin is being constructed beside the Round Pond, thanks to the heavy whimsy of the Serpentine Gallery. Fortunately it's only temporary. The work is by Yayoi Kusama, the elderly Japanese artist who has hallucinations where everything she sees is covered with polka dots, and the pumpkin is no exception. Here the first segment is being hoisted into place on its massive iron frame.

A more conventional sculpture, Pan, a late work by Jacob Epstein installed on the south edge of Hyde Park in 1961, shows the god inspiring a panic-stricken rush. Used to the public hating his sculptures -- his Rima relief at the Hudson Memorial was regularly painted green -- Epstein appeased them with a jolly dog which is clearly enjoying the stampede.