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.