Third time lucky

The Coots which have nested unsuccessfully twice on the post at Peter Pan have finally hatched chicks, of which two can be seen here. Now they have to keep them safe from the big gulls which often visit the posts, no easy task but they did succeed one year.

The young Great Crested Grebe is still stuck in the Dell stream despite an attempt to catch it by Nick Burnham the Wildlife Officer. It is a horribly difficult task. Now the little band of volunteers will need to have a go. It's all right for the moment, and was busy fishing under the small waterfall.

Its sibling was also fishing by itself on the Serpentine. It's lucky that these young grebes became independent so early.

All was well with the two younger chicks on the Long Water.

Young Moorhens are appearing in various places from nests whose existence we never suspected. This one was poking around at the Triangle.

One of the teenage Mute Swans was doing a bit of flying practice.

The young Grey Herons were exploring the island. One was climbing about the branches and the other, at lower right, was in the nest used by the previous brood of herons.

The Black-Headed Gull was occupying his territory on the landing stage.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was in the same place for the third day running -- an unfortunate choice for people trying to get a halfway decent picture of her.

The scavenging Feral Pigeons and Starlings at the Lido restaurant are particularly fond of chocolate cake. Chocolate can be bad, even fatal, for most creatures because of the stimulant theobromine it contains, but there's probably so little chocolate in the cake that it doesn't harm them.

The dominant Robin in the Flower Walk appeared as usual for his pine nuts, but this is the one on the other side of of path which is probably his mate, a much smarter bird than him as he is distinctly tatty.

A Goldcrest could be seen in a holly tree at the southwest corner of the bridge ...

... and there was a Coal Tit in the yew.

A serious stare from a passing Long-Tailed Tit.

I saw several Speckled Wood butterflies in different parts of the park. This one was on a clump of hemp agrimony in the Dell.

A Brown Hawker dragonfly hunted under the parapet of the Italian Garden.