New Coot chicks

The Hobbies are still here, hunting over Kensington Gardens. It's not clear what they are finding, since the House Martins have gone and there can't be many dragonflies left. I got a picture of an adult -- you can see the red feathers around its feet --

... and Ahmet Amerikali got a closer shot of one of the young ones.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was completely hidden when I went to the tree in the morning, but fortunately came out later. No day is complete without a sight of this lovely creature.

The Flower Walk was loud with competing Robins. This is one at the east end, behind the Albert Memorial.

The Grey Wagtail swept along the edge of the Serpentine and could be seen later beside the Lido restaurant terrace. It's always the same young one, evidently hatched in the nest beside the Dell waterfall.

The hens in the allotment are rather a plain selection. The previous ones, of very varied breeds, were killed by a fox last year. Perhaps we'll get some more colourful ones soon.

The three young Grey Herons in the nest in the island gave their parent a very hard time when it arrived to feed them.

Pigeon Eater was away from his usual place, leaving it free for the strange discoloured Lesser Black-Back with dark eyes.

Cormorants occupied the posts left from the defunct tern raft on the Long Water. Part of its remaining frame can be seen but even that is gradually sinking.

One of the Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Serpentine watched its mother dive. It immediately dived to follow her. This is how they learn to fish.

One of the very late Coot nests on the Long Water has hatched out, the one under the Italian Garden. Four brand new chicks can be seen.

This idyllic-looking spot is actually quite dangerous, as the north end of the Long Water has several large pike in residence. Only one chick survived from the previous brood, and the Moorhens in the opposite corner ...

... have only one survivor too.

No wonder that the relatively safe Italian Garden pools are crowded with nesting Coots.

The other active nest, at Peter Pan, hasn't hatched yet. 

This nest is ornamented with the usual snack packets and miscellaneous junk, in contrast to the one by the Italian Garden whose occupants have left it quite plain. I did see one of them playing with a crisp packet, but this was discarded.

There is one other young Coot chick, seen here on its nest across the water from Peter Pan.

A Grey Squirrel extracted sweet chestnuts from their spiky case and ate them. It didn't seem to suffer from the spikes, which are quite sharp to a human hand.

A Speckled Wood butterfly rested on a leaf at the Vista. There are still quite a lot of these along the Long Water and in the Flower Walk.

Full of beans

The Rose-Ringed Parakeets are very fond of catalpa beans, though it takes a lot of work chewing open the pods to get at them.

A Robin in the Rose Garden came out of a flower bed to take pine nuts thrown on the ground.

However, attempts to interest the young Blackbirds in the Dell with raisins have failed. They are extremely nervous creatures and it takes a long time to realise that you are throwing raisins to them, not at them.

A Long-Tailed Tit perched on a dead branch.

The Coal Tit at Mount Gate is completely assured and comes to my hand, though it dislikes being photographed first.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was in her usual horse chestnut tree but almost entirely screened by leaves. I came back later and got a slightly better picture.

There were two young Grey Herons at the Henry Moore sculpture, circling each other warily. The adult who owns the territory was away again, but no doubt will reclaim it in due course.

The three young herons were in their nest. The biggest one was restless and kept flapping, while the other two just stood there. Let's hope they show a bit of enterprise soon.

On a sunny Saturday with a swimming event taking place on the lake, the park was crowded. Pigeon Eater took no notice of the passing throng as he enjoyed a late lunch on the edge.

A Great Crested Grebe chick told its mother to wake up and go fishing.

There's no sign of hatching yet in the two Coot nests on the Long Water. The Coot at Peter Pan is constantly haunted by a Black-Headed Gull, a nuisance but not actually a danger.

A Gadwall drake looked quietly elegant in the water nearby.

There were still a couple of Migrant Hawker dragonflies to be seen at the Italian Garden.

The pink flower heads of stonecrop by the Diana fountain attracted a lot of Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.

There was also a small bee which I think is a Colletes species. Later: Conehead 54 reckons that it's a male Ivy Bee, C. hederae, off its normal ivy.

Several Speckled Wood butterflies were flying around near Peter Pan. One settled on a poplar leaf.

This leaf was twisted upside down, so the butterfly was standing on the lower surface. You can see that it's speckled with small yellow encrustations. They cause yellow spots to appear on the upper surfaces of the leaves.

I looked this up and it seems to be a fungus, Poplar Leaf Rust, Melampsora larici-populina.

A late Reed Warbler

I thought the Reed Warblers had left already, but one appeared in the reeds under the Italian Garden.

A young Blackbird foraged under a tree behind the Queen's Temple.

The dominant Robin in the Flower Walk was taking several pine nuts from my hand, watched enviously by this one across the path, perhaps his mate though of course they are separated now. As soon as he had gone she flew to my hand, quickly grabbed a pine nut, and flew off. She was clearly very nervous about doing that, but got her reward and will probably be coming back.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was on her favourite sheltered branch in the horse chestnut tree.

When I went back later she had moved to the top. She shifted nervously because two people were watching her. She is used to me and takes no notice when I'm alone.

Rose-Ringed Parakeets were exploring holes in the owls' nest tree. I've never seen a Little Owl having trouble with a parakeet, and probably they can send one off easily. One swipe with those terrible claws would make it an ex-parakeet.

A Grey Wagtail perched on a pedalo. Wagtails often hunt on boats, which get bird droppings on them that attract insects, and are also a convenient station for flying out over the water to catch passing midges.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Long Water passed some Cormorants on her way to find yet another fish.

This is one of the grebes on the Serpentine that hasn't nested. Instead of four months of constant duty she is enjoying complete idleness. She would happily have nested if there had been a suitable place, but these are few on the Serpentine.

The single Moorhen chick at the Vista, not seen for some weeks, is still alive. It came out from under the bush where the nest was.

The Black Swan was on the Long Water with a group of Mute Swans, a peaceful scene for the moment but the killer swan was not far away and probably attacked them later.

The first returning Shoveller of the autumn was at Peter Pan, a drake still mostly in eclipse.

A pair of Gadwalls rested together.

There was a report of a Little Egret flying around the Long Water in the morning. It didn't stop. I've seen Little Egrets here just twice, always in flight.

One of the foxes in the Dell trotted past the ornamental rocks and disappeared into the bushes.

A female Southern Hawker dragonfly laid eggs on the limestone kerb of the pool in front of Rima.

The catmint clump in the Rose Garden is still thronged with Common Carder bees.

A Garden Spider's web shone in the sunlight on the edge of the leaf yard.

A clump of feverfew in the allotment was unhelpfully labelled 'Parsley'. The leaves of feverfew look quite like those of flat-leafed parsley which is quite unrelated, so perhaps a mistake was made when it was coming up. Feverfew is so named because it's a febrifuge, a herb that reduces fever. It's also a traditional treatment for migraine.

The Hobby family

The whole Hobby family could be seen today hunting around the Queen's Temple and the Physical Energy statue, where there were still a few House Martins to interest them. The two young ones perched together in the top of a plane tree ...

... with a parent in the next tree ...

... and after I had gone I distantly saw the other parent flying in their direction. The tree in the background is the big black poplar at the back of the temple where they often perch when they aren't in the planes by the statue.

I couldn't see the Little Owl at the Round Pond at first and was going away, but then she considerately called a couple of times and I managed to find her well hidden in the horse chestnut tree.

Probably this was a coincidence. It seems most unlikely that she wanted to be photographed, and she probably thinks my daily visits are a nuisance.

A Chiffchaff flitted about in a bramble patch near the Henry Moore sculpture.

A Jay perched in the insect-damaged horse chestnut nearby.

The adult Grey Heron had regained possession of the sculpture, and the young one that had tried to claim the territory was nowhere to be seen.

A heron fishing under the Italian Gardens fountains accidentally grabbed some twigs, but then got a couple of very small fish.

A Robin sang in a tree anemone behind the Albert Memorial.

A Great Tit came out in the buckthorn tree at Mount Gate to take a pine nut.

Looking up the Dell from the lower end, I got a distant glimpse of the usual Grey Wagtail on the edge of the waterfall.

It had gone by the time I got round to the top, but later it reappeared by the Lido restaurant terrace, where it found a small white larva.

A young Black-Headed Gull played with a fallen plane leaf in the Serpentine.

A Great Crested Grebe managed to feed a chick while they were dodging out of the way of an advancing pedalo.

The other chick got fed a couple of minutes later.

It was also feeding time on the Long Water.

The Black Swan has returned from the Round Pond. He was under the bridge in an aggressive mood chasing some Mute Swans. He's probably lost status while he was away and needs to regain it.