A young Chaffinch flew out of the Dell and landed on a branch.
One of the young Blackcaps near the Italian Garden, photographed by Ahmet Amerikali. There have been three Blackcap nests around the Long Water, as well as others elsewhere in Kensington Gardens, and it has been a good year for them.
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The young Little Owl at the Round Pond, not seen for several days, was in a horse chestnut tree. It had a careful look around, preened briefly and flew away.
Its father kept an eye on it from the next tree.
The young Grey Herons are getting more adventurous. One climbed out of the nest on to a branch.
Its wings are fully developed but it will have to practise jumping and flapping from branch to branch before it can fly. This all looks thoroughly dangerous, but they never seem to lose their footing and get stranded on the ground.
An adult heron was fishing on the small waterfall in the Dell. It was standing stock still and passers by were wondering whether it was a plastic ornament.
A Great Crested Grebe on the Long Water was doing a typically vague bit of nest building. It really takes two of them to do anything, and even then the result is a slovenly mess.
A Coot family in the Italian Garden bustled around in the water lilies looking for insects.
We haven't had a picture of the Black Swan for a while. He was preening at the east end of the Serpentine. All this time he has been alone, and is not making any progress in finding a new girlfriend.
A Canada Goose pecked at a floating orange.
A Tufted drake turned upside down to preen his shining white belly.
One of the young foxes in the Dell came down to the stream to drink.
They sometimes go to the top of the slope and peer through the railings at the passing humans.
A male Emperor dragonfly hunted over the Long Water.
Black-Tailed Skimmers mated on the edge of the Serpentine, a long and complicated business.
A Comma butterfly perched on a bramble leaf.
The small bee seen yesterday was on the same patch of red yarrow in the Rose Garden. It had less pollen on it and I think it's a Yellow-Legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes, but the pollen makes it hard to tell whether its legs really are yellow.
It was dwarfed by a Hornet Hoverfly.
Hi Ralph, I was not aware that foxes could walk on water ,!!..you did very well to get a pic of the skimmer flying !.regards,Stephen...
ReplyDeleteIt was an Emperor flying and Black-Tailed Skimmers mating. I did once get a short and poor quality video of a female Skimmer doing her strange egg laying routine, in flight and dropping momentarily to the surface to lay one egg at a time, which is what gives this group of dragonflies its name. I've seen it this summer, but it's drastically hard to capture on video.
DeleteThe male Little Owl is making a face almost as if rebuking his kid: "where have you been these past days?"
ReplyDeleteLet's face it. Why should Grebes learn to do anything vaguely practical being as pretty as they are.
Tinúviel
i think that not having seen the young owl for several days was simply due to my ineptitude at finding it. But the father was definitely keeping an eye on it
DeleteA grebe's nest is the minimum that will do the job, a mess but sufficient. Quite unlike the towering baroque structures of Coots, full of strange ornaments.
A lovely selection of insects. I'd agree with Andrena flavipes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the confirmation.
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