Hobbies over the Serpentine

The two young Hobbies were hunting dragonflies over the Serpentine. This isn't a good picture but it does show one of them holding a dragonfly.

A much better picture taken by Nathalie Mahieu of FAB Peregrines on Sunday shows a Hobby perched on a dead tree behind the Queen's Temple, where they often go. It's a tall tree and gives a good view of the surroundings.

The male Chaffinch in the Rose Garden shrubbery came out from under a bush to apply for some pine nuts.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits visited the dead hawthorn near the Henry Moore sculpture. There are two hawthorns here, one dead and one live which you can see in the background.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was in her usual horse chestnut tree.

An adult Grey Heron arrived in the newest nest on the island, and there was a confused milling in the hawthorn branches which partly hide it. This picture also shows the previous nest with the unenterprising young heron back in it after yesterday's little expedition.

I started filming to try to clear up the confusion. The two sets of two chicks on the island seem to be permanently mixed up, something I've never seen before. In the first clip the adult leaves the newer nest, which contains two small chicks of its own and one of the older chicks from the earlier nest nearby. The second clip shows the other older chick back in its own nest. In the third clip one of the younger chicks comes into full view. The adults seem not to mind this odd situation.

The teenager from the second nest was at the other end of the island, with a clump of Great Willowherb on the left and Purple Loosestrife on the right. These two wild plants seem to be the only flowering species that will grow in the soggy matting in the floating baskets, and I think it would be a good idea to encourage them by adding extra seed so that they covered the baskets, which are very ugly.

At one end of the island there were two Great Crested Grebe chicks, one of which was pestering its father who was busy finding fish for them.

At the other end the third chick was prodding its mother, who was trying to sleep.

The three chicks on the Long Water were by the nest under the poplar. Their mother arrived with a fish.

The unstoppable Coots under the parapet of the Italian Garden were adding more and more reeds to their nest.

The killer Mute Swan, his mate and their six teenagers rested in the shade of the small willow at the Triangle taking occasional bites at the leaves, which swans like.

Three Canada Geese competed for an apple.

In the Rose Garden a Batman Hoverfly browsed on a small single rose, an easy flower to get into.

A Honeybee was having a harder time entering a large double rose, though it did manage to crawl into the petals. Some of the denser double roses are completely impenetrable.

The clump of catmint continues to attract a lot of Common Carders.

A Greenbottle fly shone in the sunlight in a flower bed.