The Little owlet at the Round Pond was restless and flying around. Here it is in a horse chestnut.
Its father kept an eye on it from the dead tree and remained quite calm even when several people were looking at him.
A short compilation of different views.
There were at least ten Pied Wagtails at the Round Pond, mostly clustered around the giant pumpkin. This young one is already old enough to hunt insects for itself.
A Greenfinch singing his mild wheezing song in the top of a hawthorn tree by the Long Water was answered and outclassed by a Song Thrush in the next tree.
The Grey Heron often seen at the northwest corner of the bridge stood in the middle of the path and I had to shoo it away to get past.
There were three pairs of Great Crested Grebes near the Serpentine island. The resulting territorial dispute turned into a brief fight.
The nest on the chain is still holding together. This sloppy mess seems to be stronger than it looks.
The Coots' nest just south of the Peter Pan waterfront hasn't been used for nesting since the chicks grew up, but it remains a place to rest and so is getting larger and larger as the unstoppable Coots keep adding twigs to it.
The nest on the post doesn't seem to be making any progress but the Coots are hanging on with their usual tenacity.
It's the same with the nest under the Dell restaurant terrace. All these nests have been in use for months.
The mother of one of the single Mute cygnets on the Serpentine was cruising around in a defensive attitude, further ruffled up by a brisk tailwind.
A quiet moment at the Vista allowed the Egyptian Goose to bring her four youngsters on to the grass for a feed.
A Blue-Tailed Damselfly rested on an iris leaf in the Italian Gaden.
A Mining Bee browsed on a clump of pink mallow near the Norwegian merchant navy memorial stone in Hyde Park. It's clearly an Andrena species but I can't say which.
Later: Duncan Campbell thought it was a Chocolate Mining Bee, Andrena scotica, but wasn't sure because the picture didn't show the abdomen clearly. Here's a picture from another angle that shows he was right.
Duncan found a Wool Carder Bee in the Rose Garden. They've been scarce this year, like most of the flying insects.
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He also got two shining Rosemary Beetles on a lavender flower ...
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... and a jazzy Fourteen-Spot Ladybird on a leaf.
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Hi Ralph, some lovely little owls today !...what a great time we had today with the barn owls, we checked 6 boxes and found 7 owls, at various stages of growth..(approx 60 days old, on average.).we are seeing a real lack of prey for them, and some landowners are a bit difficult !...I am determined to get some pics for you, I'll take the sony camera next time...I found that yellow ladybird very curious.regards,stephen.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the owls. Wish I could send you some of our mice.
DeleteThat's the second time we've had that yellow ladybird on the blog this year, a very striking creature.
Wow, those are really beautiful beetles!
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, I imagine Grebe nests must be sturdier than we give them credit for. They've been building them like that for a million years, literally, so I guess they've the art down to a science. Not all can or will be Coots!
Tinúviel
I have seen a grebe nest literally shake to pieces in small choppy waves formed when the wind blew from an unusual direction. Maybe some are built better than others. Including plastic bags, an often used material, strengthens them a lot.
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