First clear sight of the Little owlet

This afternoon the Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery came out into full view. It wasn't happy about being photographed and flew away after a few seconds. But the owls do get used to their fame.

A family of Blackcaps were leaping around in a holly tree to the north of Peter Pan. These are two of the young ones.

A serious stare from one.

This tree is where I photographed a family of Greenfinches three days ago, and they were still there. Here is a young one with stains of blackberry juice on its bill.

I met the people making a film about Pigeon Eater. They had been there since early morning and said that he hadn't caught anything yet. Predictably, he was in an irritable mood. First he went for a Grey Heron that was standing on the Dell restaurant roof ...

... then he flew over to a Coots' nest on the far side and had a faceoff with the occupants. It's clear why he was interested in it, as you can just see the little red head of a chick in the nest.

Having been foiled, he made several low passes over the nest, but with both furious parents defending it he didn't have a chance of a snatch.

Yesterday, seeing that the Great Crested Grebes nesting on a chain at the island had eggs in the nest, I asked the people at the boat hire place to be careful and not moor boats where they could knock into the nest. Today I found that they had done exactly that, tying a boat to that very length of chain. As a result the nest had been upset and the eggs lost. The grebes were repairing the damage, but will the female be able to lay more eggs?

This is absolutely typical of the Royal Parks' negligent attitude to wildlife.

The smallest Manadarin duckling on the Round Pond had wandered off by itself yet again.

I wonder whether the failure of Mandarin ducklings to 'imprint' on their mother, so that they would automatically follow her around, is due to the fact that they hatch in a dark hole in a tree and don't get a proper sight of her for a while.

The Tufted ducklings on the Long Water follow their mother obediently, and were skittering around frantically. They can dive well from the moment they come out on to the water.

A gingerish blonde female Mallard could be seen at Peter Pan.

There is still at least one Lesser Emperor dragonfly hunting near the bridge, and it can be seen on both sides at the north end. I didn't get a picture of it, but I did get one of some Common Blue damselflies and one Red-Eyed damselfly at a twig stick out of the water.

A Comma butterfly drank nectar from a buddleia blossom near the bridge steps. 

A Red Admiral sunned itself on a bramble beside the Long Water.

A Common Carder bee fed on a snowberry flower.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee preferred a cosmos.

But I have no idea what this dark wasp is, seen on a Peruvian lily near the Diana fountain.