An unusual bee

The Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery is still hard to spot, and it took two visits to see it. It's getting calmer about being photographed, and looked curiously down from the chestnut branch at the antics below.

Another family of Blackcaps was dashing around in an elder tree at the southwest corner of the bridge. They were very hard to see here, but I got some sort of picture.

A Reed Warbler perched on a bramble in the scrub to the east of the Lido swimming area.

A Feral Pigeon was recklessly sunbathing in the middle of the busy path by the boat hire platform.

The Grey Heron in the new nest at the east end of the island gazed heavenward as it was persecuted by the chicks.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes displayed on the Serpentine. This is not the pair whose nest was destroyed. Let's hope they can find a reasonable nest site. There are several places on the island behind the wire baskets.

The Coots were building up their new nest on the chain at the bridge. This nest is just as exposed as the ill-fated grebes' nest, but Coots are far better builders than grebes and these nests tend to last. However, any chicks will be at great risk from Herring Gulls perching on the posts.

There's already at least one egg.

A rapid exit of Canada Geese from the Long Water showed that the ferocious Mute Swan was ejecting them. This time he and his family came out under the bridge and herded the intruders on to the shore at the Triangle.

The Tufted Duck was at the swans' nesting island. She still has all her eleven ducklings.

The Lesser Emperor dragonfly was hunting up and down the bridge, and I got a picture of it at the second pass on the south side. There was also at least one Emperor and the usual crowd of Black-Tailed Skimmers, all chasing each other.

A Willow Emerald damselfly perched on a twig at the northwest corner of the bridge.

There was a Seven-Spot Ladybird in the Rose Garden. It's always pleasing to find a native ladybird instead of the numerous Harlequins.

Honeybees browsed busily on a patch of cranesbill in the Flower Walk.

The usual bees were also to be seen in the Rose Garden,  a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in a dahlia ...

... a Common Carder on a white clover flower on the lawn ...

... and a small bee of uncertain species on a coreopsis. Could it be a Sweat Bee of the genus Lasioglossum?

But these paled into insignificance beside a Large Scabious Mining Bee, Andrena hattorfiana, photographed by Benny Hawksbee on the football fields where the Crystal Palace used to stand. It was spotted by his four-year-old son Dylan, who shows a precocious talent for entomology.

This is only the second time one has been seen in Hyde Park. It feeds only on Field Scabious, Knautia arvensis, and a few closely related species.