Fierce little duck

The little Mandarin on the Round Pond was having a quarrel with a Carrion Crow. Its tough early life has made it unusually aggressive.

The Great Crested Grebe on the nest under the Dell restaurant balcony was shouting at Pigeon Eater, though he had only come close to pick up a bit of pizza crust someone had thrown to him.

He was on the water with his mate and offspring -- he's on the left in this picture. I'm not sure whether there is one young one or two, since two have been seen begging. One of these may just have been trying it on

All was quiet at the nest on the island ...

... and at the landing stage. Waterproof grebes don't mind the drizzle.

One of the off-duty grebes preened, ate a feather that had come loose, stretched a leg and went to sleep. But their leisurely life will be overturned when they have chicks to feed.

A Wood Pigeon was not enjoying the rain but had to put up with it.

A female Great Spotted Woodpecker on a dead tree on the island was preening and making chippy calls.

The cooler weather has brought out more small birds in the Rose Garden. A Great Tit applied for a pine nut in an elaeagnus bush ...

... and a Blue Tit waited in a catalpa.

A Magpie posed elegantly on a stump.

A young Grey Heron climbed over the collapsed willow at the bridge.

A Moorhen was climbing on the outside of the tree. They nest in a hole here but I have never managed to find where it is.

Both Peregrines were on the tower when I arrived, but by the time I got round to it the female had flown off.

The hemp agrimony bush in the Dell is a magnet for insects. There were several Hornet Hoverflies, which are among the more realistic hoverfly mimics. Its colouring makes it less likely to be eaten by a bird -- though not all that much, as birds have sharp eyes.

There was a Jersey Tiger Moth here again ...

... and of course, several of the ubiquitous Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.

There are a lot of Jersey Tigers around at the moment. This one was in the Rose Garden.

The colouring of these moths is also protective, though in a different way from that of hoverflies that mimic bees in what is known as Batesian mimicry. The mimicry of tiger moths is Müllerian: all are foul-tasting and they have evolved a common signal to make this apparent to birds. It isn't the stripes, though these may work as dazzle camouflage. It's the bright red, orange or yellow hindwings that are the warning.

A snack interrupted

A Blue Tit eating a pine nut in the Rose Garden was knocked off its perch by a Great Tit.

Another was waiting farther along the hedge.

At the bottom right of the picture you can see the orange cup-shaped apothecia, or fruiting bodies, of the lichen on the twig. Lichens are composed of fungi with algae or bacteria, and these come from the fungus.

The familiar Chaffinch appeared on a pergola.

The bold young Robin at the back of the Queen's Temple perched on a twig. 

The young Pied Wagtail on the south bank of the Serpentine was hunting on the grass.

Rose-Ringed Parakeets are messy and wasteful feeders and keep dropping their food. This scene was shot in the Triangle shrubbery where there are several plum trees.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage had chased off all rivals and was relaxing.

A Cormorant perched on the favourite dead branch at the island.

The six half-grown Coot chicks in the southeast pool in the Italian Garden, which usually straggle all over the place, were bunched together in a tight group.

The little Mandarin on the Round Pond was in its usual place on the gravel ...

... but earlier Natasha got a brief video of it making a short flight.

The three Egyptian goslings by the Serpentine island had survived another day.

A Canada x Greylag Goose hybrid preened on the edge of the lake. They are a miscellaneous lot: this one has Greylag-like colour on its bill and feet and Canada-ish plumage.

A large and healthy rat strolled through a flower bed east of the Lido.

A Jersey Tiger moth drank nectar from the florets of a flower head of hemp agrimony in the Dell.

The Verbena bonariensis in the Rose Garden is always popular with insects, and had attracted a White-Tailed Bumblebee ...

... and a Large White butterfly.

A yellow patch of Dog Vomit Slime Mould, Fuligo septica, stood out on a fallen tree near the Henry Moore sculpture. It seems to be edible, as something has chewed out a patch on the middle.

The other Little owlet

A Little owlet looked gravely out from the hole in the horse chestnut tree in Hyde Park. There are two of them, and this is not the one seen on the 23rd and 25th: it has much smaller eyebrows. It seems probable that this is female and the earlier one male.

A young Robin stared from a fallen branch behind the Queen's Temple. I tried to interest it in some pine nuts thrown on the ground in front of it, but it didn't get the idea.

An adult was just beginning to sing again after the summer silence, very quietly. It shut up as soon as I raised the camera, so I couldn't shoot a video.

A young Magpie near Temple Gate begged at both parents but they took no notice. They considered it was time it found food for itself.

A Jay near the Henry Moore sculpture enjoyed a peanut.

A Carrion Crow had carried off Pigeon Eater's leftovers to the Lido restaurant, where it horrified people looking over the edge of the terrace.

The Peregrines were both on the tower, refusing to pose nicely. The male, on the right, kept going to the back of the ledge so I was lucky to get a picture of them at all.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Long Water had a wash and a flap.

In addition to the nests on the island ...

... and by the landing stage ...

... there is now one under the balcony of the Dell restaurant. This is a former Coot nest, but the Coots deserted it some time ago.

Unfortunately Pigeon Eater was on the roof directly above ...

... and his mate was looking at the nest from the water below.

Four fountain pools in the Italian Garden have now seen six broods of Coot chicks brought up this year. It's a safer place than the main lake, and the parents know this.

The little Mandarin on the Round Pond was by the gravel strip. The picture shows its almost fully grown wings.

A pair of Egyptian Geese and a Moorhen shared a rowing boat.

The mother at the island is stubbornly holding on to her three surviving goslings.

In the Rose Garden a Honeybee visited an Indian Blanket flower for a moment before flying on to another, but a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee stayed on the same flower and worked over every one of the little florets in the centre.

Young birds growing up

The rowan fruit on Buck Hill continues to attract Mistle Thrushes, but there are only a few of them this year and we don't get the flocks that used to visit.

Most of the young birds are now teenagers independent of their parents, including the Robin in the Flower Walk which is getting redder by the day ...

... the Blackbird at Mount Gate ...

... the Pied Wagtail by the Serpentine ...

... and this Moorhen in the shrubbery at the Triangle. The picture shows the way a Moorhen has to clench its long toes together when moving its foot forward to avoid catching them on the other leg.

The little Mandarin on the Round Pond was resting on the gravel strip.

This is one of its larger siblings on the collapsed willow at the bridge. Its primary feathers are still not quite adult length, but it must be able to fly because it has come down from the pond to the lake.

I think the little one can probably fly too, but it needs its mother to visit it and bring it down to the lake to join the rest of the family. This is quite possible, as she has been up to see it more than once.

We haven't had a picture of the Mallard family on the Round Pond for a while, as the six teenagers are no longer going around in a compact flock and it's hard to get them all into the frame, but here they are.

One of the dark Mallard drakes was behaving in an uncharacteristic way by repeatedly diving.

A Gadwall was preening on the willow at the bridge -- a different one from yesterday's on this branch. I think there are more Gadwalls than Mallards on the Long Water now, something never seen before.

The latest brood of Egyptian goslings are still tiny, but their mother has been able to keep the last three for several days.

A Greylag at the Triangle pecked bits out of a windfall apple.

The dominant Mute Swan brought his six cygnets to the Vista to tout for food.

Then he went on to the Serpentine to attack the other swans. His mate followed with the cygnets to watch him perform.

All was peaceful at the Great Crested Grebes' nests on the island ...

... and by the landing stage.

A Large White butterfly fed on a verbena flower in the Rose Garden until it was knocked off by another.

A Marmalade Fly vsisited an agapanthus.