The last day of summer

On the last day of summer it was still warm and the park was thronged with Sunday crowds. A Starling on the Dell restaurant terrace blended its chatter with the human babble.

This Robin on the steps at the southwest corner of the bridge is now a regular customer and took two pine nuts from my hand.

It seems that Pigeon Eater's attack on his whining offspring yesterday has had the desired effect. He was standing peacefully in his usual place ...

... and his mate was on the Dell restaurant roof, and there was no sight or sound of the young one.

The last brood of young Grey Herons came down from their nest at least a fortnight ago, but they still return to it from time to time.

A young heron walked along the edge of the Dell stream, alert for a fish in the water or a rat lurking under the Chilean rhubarb. This plant is always chewed to rags by some caterpillar in the Dell, but the clump by the Italian Garden is untouched.

The Great Crested Grebe chicks from the east end of the island were with their mother while their father went on a fishing expedition ...

... and the two on the south side of the Serpentine were playing with each other as they waited.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good picture of the one at the east end of the lake being fed.

A Cormorant had a violent wash at Peter Pan ...

... and an Egyptian Goose passed by low over the water.

The male in the Italian Garden was preening on the parapet while his mate was on her nest.

The lone gosling on the Serpentine is now as big as a Mallard and beginning to get proper feathers.

The Gadwall drakes are looking soberly smart again after coming out of eclipse. One preened with its mate on the edge of the lake.

There are still some Willow Emerald damselflies ...

... and also plenty of Migrant Hawker dragonflies and I still haven't managed to get a decent picture of one.

A Common Carder bee made good use of its long proboscis on a stonecrop flower head in the Rose Garden.

This Hornet Hoverfly in a patch of Indian Blanket flowers is the commonly seen species Volucella zonaria ...

... but I think a less bright one in the hemp agrimony in the Dell is its relative V. inanis.

Monarch of the Dell

A Wren struck a grand pose on a rock in the Dell.

The female Chaffinch in the Flower Walk was looking expectant. Unlike her mate and the young male which may be their offsprings, she hasn't learnt to dart out to catch pine nutes in midair and has to be fed on the ground.

A Robin across the path was looking worn after raising young. The second shot is of the equally tatty regular customer at Mount Gate. They will get new feathers in autumn.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits flew over the south end of the bridge and proceeded up the Long Water.

The Reed Warblers are still in the reed bed under the Italian Garden. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for this picture.

They are in exactly the same place as the Sedge Warblers, but there doesn't seem to be any conflict. There's plenty of room and plenty of insects in the reeds.

Also from Ahmet, a shot of a Wood Pigeon parent ignoring the demands of a young one.

There was another Feral Pigeon with feathered feet in the Rose Garden.

You never know where a Jackdaw will turn up to claim a peanut. This one was by the boathouses.

They are much more mobile than Jays and Magpies, which usually turn up in the same place day after day.

Pigeon Eater lost patience with his whining youngster and chased it away.

The Great Crested Grebes from an unseen nest on the Serpentine island were at the south shore. One parent caught five fish in ten minutes to feed two ever hungry chicks.

The chicks from the east end of the island were quiet for once.

The single chick at the east end of the lake looked out from its mother's back.

A Moorhen by the boathouses was with two chicks, now large enough to find their own food.

The single Mute cygnet and its mother rested on the path, obliging visitors to walk round them. I think swans block the path deliberately to establish dominance over humans. They sometimes make it impossible to walk along the narrow section at the Triangle, and you simply have to go round on the other path.

A Crab Spider, Misumena varia, waited on an Indian Blanket flower in the Rose Garden. They don't spin webs, and simply wait to catch an unwary insect. They can change colour to match the flowers they prefer to stand on, but it takes three weeks and this one seems to not to have bothered with trying to match the gaudy flower.

A Hornet Hoverfly would have matched quite well, but this one was on the hemp agrimony in the Dell.

Two Greenbottles filed across a patch of dead grass.

Tom was at Rainham Marshes, where he found a Brown Hairstreak butterfly. This is a female, with a much brighter orange patch than the male I found in the Dell on the 12th.

Little owlet on view

The male Little owlet was out in the nest tree in Hyde Park. He's looking almost grown up now.

I couldn't resist filming him, thought he wasn't doing anything more than looking around.

The old male Chaffinch in the Rose Garden hasn't been visible for some time, so it was good to see him back and hungry as ever.

The Robin in the Dell also came out in a tree to collect some pine nuts ...

... and so of course did the reliable one at Mount Gate.

A Starling shone in the sunlight at the Lido restaurant.

A Grey Heron was looking fixedly into the reeds at the other end of the Lido, hoping that a fish would emerge between the stems.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull was in a commanding position on the old iron water level at Fisherman's Keep.

The Great Crested Grebe on the nest halfway down the island was still there, and clearly intends to take possession of it. It was adjusting a nasty old plastic bag. This is actually a valuable building material for grebes, as it reinforces their sloppy nests much better than any water weed would.

The grebes at the east end of the island are now down to two chicks, which is a shame but not unexpected with all the Herring Gulls waiting to pounce. One of them was taking a fish, about the largest size it could swallow but it managed.

The Coots near the Lido still have their one small chick.

There are quite a lot of young Moorhens now, though they are vastly outnumbered by the teeming Coots. This one at the Serpentine island is still in teenage brown but just beginning to get its adult red bill.

There was another in the reeds under the Italian Garden.

The lone Mute cygnet barged its way through a crowd of gulls.

The aged and very tatty Greylag Goose with ring U561 was walking stiffly along the south side of the Serpentine. It still seems to be coping. The bird rescue volunteers are keeping an eye on it.

A squirrel ate an old faded Chicken of the Woods fungus. Evidently they know which species are edible. However, I've never seen any fatally poisonous mushroom such as a Death Cap in the park.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee worked over the hundreds of florets inside a sunflower in the Rose Garden.

The Firecracker Plant at the Lido restuarant had Common Carder bees on it again, and only this species. Common Carders have a long proboscis that can reach down the tube. It seems that Honeybees can't reach, and perhaps the larger bumblebees are too big to perch on the narrow flower.

A visitor from Prague

The Czech Black-Headed Gull is back on the Serpentine. It's a dominant bird and I noticed it because it was shouting at some other gulls. 

For those who haven't been following it, I'll repeat its history. It was hatched on a lake at Hobšovice, a few miles northwest of Prague, in 2021, and was given the metal ring ET05.589. It migrated to Hyde Park in its first winter, presumably with some unringed gulls from the same place, and has been here every year since. In 2023 the park bird ringer Bill Haines caught it and put on a plastic ring, Orange 2V57.

The other dominant Black-Headed Gull was looking peeved at having to share its platform with some Canada Geese.

A Jackdaw trotted up at the east end of the Lido to ask for a peanut.

A Robin in the big yew tree at the corner of the Dell accepted some pine nuts thrown on the ground, the first time I've had any dealings with it.

The Robin at Mount Gate is a regular customer ...

... as is the old male Chaffinch, who today appeared under a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

A Wood Pigeon in the Flower Walk reached for pyracantha fruit.

A young one by the bridge was picking up stones to refill its gizzard. With their tough diet of unripe berries and stringy leaves they must get through a lot of stones.

The Great Crested Grebes under the bridge were transferring their single chick from one parent's back to the other.

A grebe by the Lido restaurant searched for small fish swimming just below the surface to bring to her chicks.

The nest halfway along the island is occupied again, but it seems unlikely that this bird is aiming to breed. More probably it's just resting. But this is a place to keep an eye on.

There were two small Moorhen chicks under a bush by the Vista.

A Tufted drake at the Triangle was beginning to come out of eclipse and get his smart breeding plumage again.

Joan Chatterley was at Walthamstow Wetlands, where she got this interesting picture of a Yellow-Bellied Slider terrapin coming up to the surface.

She also found a Migrant Hawker dragonfly resting on a leaf.

I was envious, as I had spent a lot of time vainly trying to get a picture of one. But I did find a Willow Emerald damselfly on a railing spike near the Italian Garde.

In the Rose Garden a Eupeodes luniger hoverfly browsed on a Michaelmas daisy ...

... and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee visited a clump of bidens.