More Whitethroats

Two Whitethroats were singing on the east side of the Long Water, though I only got a picture of one of them.

There was a young Blackbird digging in the Flower Walk ...

... and another at Mount Gate.

A young Great Tit by the bridge was already poking at bark looking for insects.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was more visible than usual in his lime tree.

On the ground below a Jay demanded a peanut.

A young Magpie by the bridge begged a parent to feed it.

A Wren loudly scolded them from the next tree, a red-leafed cherry.

The three Grey Heron chicks in the nest at the east end of the island were jumping around and clacking.

A heron was chased up the Long Water by a Lesser Black-Backed Gull.

There were more Feral Pigeons than usual on the shore by the Dell restaurant, and Pigeon Eater was eyeing them looking for his chance.

The Coot nest on the baskets at the Triangle now seems to be well established. It's too public but not an altogether bad place, as it's well away from the shore and the edge of the basket offers some protection from swooping gulls.

The five Mute cygnets were with their mother near the boat hire platform. They're growing fast now.

The Pochard on the Long Water still has three ducklings, and they were all resting under a poplar at the Vista.

I couldn't find the Mandarin, but they spend more time ashore than other ducks and are often hidden in the bushes.

A fox looked out through the oxeye daisies near the Vista.

David Element got a splendid picture of a Red-Veined Darter dragonfly at the Round Pond, one of eight males here.

An Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp, Cerceris rybyensis, drank nectar on an oxeye daisy across the Long Water from Peter Pan. These solitary wasps are fierce little creatures and kill bees to feed their grubs, though as with all wasps the adults have an entirely liquid diet.

A Common Carder Bee fed on stachys flowers in the Rose Garden. They are much less aggressive than the Wool Carders and coexist peacefully with the numerous Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.