The Little Owlets are grown up

An otherwise dull day was lifted by a sight of one of the young Little Owls in the horse chestnut tree in Hyde Park. He's now looking completely grown up, small but grand.

A Long-Tailed Tit searched for insects in a blackthorn bush near the Buck Hill shelter.

The tatty Robin at Mount Gate was waiting for its daily treat ...

... and so was the Chaffinch in the Rose Garden.

Feral Pigeons ate pyracantha fruit on the edge of the Flower Walk. Unlike the heavy Wood Pigeons, they hold on firmly and don't keep falling out of the tree.

Starlings flew into a large tree by the Diana fountain. The number in the park seems to be increasing slowly.

The Black-Headed Gull from Prague, a most aggressive bird, had cleared off all the other nearby gulls and was searching the shore for anything edible. A stick and a bit of bark failed to satisfy.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick from the east end of the Serpentine is now too big to fit under its mother's wings, but she's still prepared to carry it around for a while longer.

Its father arrived with a fish.

A grebe fished at the Vista. The pair on the Long Water have lost their chick, and one of the chicks from the east end of the island is also gone, but that leaves a total of five which is slightly better than in past years.

The Coots are breeding furiously and their numbers are steadily rising. Casualties are high but persistence pays off.

There was enough wind to encourage Mute Swans to charge across the Serpentine. They like to have a brisk headwind, which reduces ythe effort of taking off.

The single Egyptian gosling was by the boathouses, tended by its mother.

One of the two black Mallards was dozing on the landing stage, unharassed by the dominant gull which was away bullying some others by the bridge.

The clump of hemp agrimony in the Dell is beginning to wilt, but it still attracted a Speckled Wood butterfly ...

... and a Batman hoverfly.

The Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden are in full bloom, and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was making the most of one.

A very faded Common Carder bee climbed up a sage flower.