Fall of a Lesser Emperor

It was good to see that the Blackbirds near Mount Gate have nested successfully. The female was collecting insects under a tree on the little hummocks that are all that remain of Charles Bridgeman's 70 ft tall Prospect Mount.

A young Starling was strangely busy on a dead branch in a treetop near Peter Pan. It was just a black silhouette against an overcast sky and I couldn't see what it was doing. The photograph shows (not too clearly) that there was a spider's web between two twigs and the bird was picking midges out of it.

On the other side of the lake a Chiffchaff was still singing on another dead branch.

A Jay arrived to collect a peanut.

Pigeon Eater had finished his lunch at the Dell restaurant, leaving the remains to be picked at by a young Herring Gull.

I went to the bridge to try to get a better picture of a Lesser Emperor dragonfly, and found that a Grey Heron had occupied the Coot nest and was playing with a twig.

The dragonfly flew in and perched on a twig, on the wrong side for a picture. But sadly the heron also saw it arrive ...

... and grabbed and ate it.

A heron on the water below the Italian Garden was picking up what appeared to be bits of cooked chicken that someone had thrown into the water for it.

Apparently the same person had also brought some bits of apple, and Coots were competing for them. A surprising variety of birds like apples, preferring them to any other fruit.

Three of the six Mute cygnets on the Long Water were eating algae at the edge of the reed bed. This unpromising-looking stuff is highly nutritious and, supplemented with the occasional snail or other small water creature,  allows them to grow quickly to their enormous adult size.

An Egyptian Goose at the Triangle found a windfall plum which was ripe enough to be palatable.

A blond Egyptian was preening a wing, showing smart new new grey flight feathers.

Two of the Mandarin ducklings on the Round Pond, including the small one, were being eyed by a young Herring Gull. Luckily they were with their mother. If the gull had made a move she would have hurled herself recklessly at it.

The other duckling was farther up the gravel strip, scratching itself.

A Meadow Brown butterfly fed on a buddleia blossom by the bridge.

A Speckled Wood butterfly perched on a leaf in their usual place in the Flower Walk. It was new and perfect. They emerge over a long season from March to October as the result of overwintering either as a larva or as a pupa.

The eryngium patch near the Lido was crowded with Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.