The Tufted ducklings reappear

A brood of Tufted ducklings, nine of them, was first seen on the Serpentine three days ago. They are mostly keeping safely out of sight by the island. Today there were still nine. They were at the Lido restaurant with their mother.

Only one of the young Grey Herons on the island was still in the nest, here seen begging at a parent on a branch above.

The other one had come right down and was on one of the wire baskets around the island. This is worrying. Clearly it had some flying skill, because it couldn't have got on to the basket without it. But can it fly well enough to get back up to the nest? It won't be fed unless it's in the nest.

The male Little Owl at the Round Pond looked out of the nest hole. I saw a squirrel in the hole yesterday, but he seems to be able to scare them away.

The owlet was calling from a nearby horse chestnut. I couldn't find it at first. Then its mother flew out of the same tree and on to another some distance away, evidently trying to lead me away from her youngster. I couldn't get close to her because she had trouble with two Rose-Ringed Parakeets that were already in the tree and all three disappeared in a flurry of squawks.

Returning to the owlet, I found it well hidden in the leaves.

A Blackbird searched for worms under a tree by the Dell. It pulled up two but didn't eat them at once. I've seen this behaviour before when they were feeding young: they leave the worms on the ground and come back to collect several at a time to carry to the nestlings. But this bird's young have grown up, so the habit seems to be general.

This Blackbird near the Round Pond came out from under a lime tree, immediately picked up a worm, and went back under the tree. Maybe it was another example of a pre-pulled worm.

A Great Tit by the bridge was clearly thinking, When will he stop pointing that thing at me and give me a pine nut?

A gang of Feral Pigeons gathered in a particularly lush patch of grass to pull the seeds off the stems.

A young Carrion Crow beside the Serpentine tried hard to shell a peanut. It had the good idea of wedging it against a twig to keep it still, but lacked the strength to give it the brutal peck that would break the shell, which an adult can easily do. But it knew what to do and probably managed in the end, and anyway it needs to learn the technique.

This young crow by the Henry Moore sculpture knew perfectly well how to shell a peanut and I've seen it succeed. I gave it a nut, but it couldn't be bothered to open it and instead was begging at a parent, which took absolutely no notice of it.

A crow shook itself dry after bathing at the Vista.

A remarkable picture from Cáceres in Spain, taken by Emilio Pacios: hundreds of House Martins gathered on electricity cables. In the park we're lucky to see a dozen at a time. I wonder where they all nest.

A Red Admiral butterfly sunned itself in the middle of the path at the Triangle.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee on a globe thistle in the Rose Garden saw off a Batman Hoverfly that had tried to land.

Lastly, here's an insect I've never seen before: a Pellucid Hoverfly Volucella pellucens, on the tip of a buddleia flower at the bridge which it's sharing with a relative, a Hornet Hoverfly V. zonaria.

The Pellucid Hoverfly is a parasitoid. It strolls into the underground nests of Common or German Wasps, for some reason unopposed, and lays its eggs. The emerging larvae then feed on wasp larvae and dead wasps. From what I can discover, the Hornet Hoverfly also lays eggs in wasp nests but its larvae are commensal, living peacefully among the wasp larvae. Can this really be true?