Tatty Robin

I hadn't seen the female Robin at Mount Gate for some time. Today she turned up looking very tatty from nesting. I only saw a young Robin here once, scuttling into a bush too fast for a photograph.

A female Great Tit by the Dell was looking exasperated as several fledglings begged at her.

A young Carrion Crow near the Serpentine Gallery pestered its parents for a share of their peanuts, and got fed twice.

Another crow sunbathed in a lime tree.

A pair of Magpies perched amicably side by side near the Vista.

The male Little Owl at the gallery was in an awkward place and I couldn't get much of a picture.

I also heard the owlet calling from the other chestnut tree, but couldn't see it despite checking the tree from all angles. The sound was faint, and probably it was inside the hollow trunk.

Theodore found a Peregrine on the bell tower of Imperial College. It could be the female from the Knightsbridge barracks just 500 yards away. It certainly isn't the male, as he is quite dark and dingy-looking.

A Grey Heron fishing in the Italian Garden stood by a patch of wild vervain that has come up around the ponds. No doubt the gardeners will be sent to pull the plants up, but in fact it's prettier than its cultivated relative Verbena bonariensis which is put deliberately in the park flower beds.

 

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull had won a chunk of stale bread too large to swallow, but was being harassed by Egyptian Geese while trying to find a safe place to put it down and peck at it.

The seven Egyptian goslings by the small boathouses are growing fast and are now out of danger from being snatched by gulls.

It's clear that when they are moulting their flight feathers geese feel itchy and cross. Greylags on the Serpentine were rushing about and diving to relieve the irritation.

The young Mandarins and their mother, on the path at the Triangle, prevent a Coot from coming ashore. It's one of the ducklings, not the mother, that sends it off -- I've seen them dismissing Coots before.

The Pochard and her duckling at the Vista are very partial to sunflower hearts, and are now coming over whenever I pass by.

A female Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly perched on a clump of small pink roses in the Rose Garden.

A Comma butterfly rested on the railings at Mount Gate in front of a hypericum bush.

A patch of Meadow Cranesbill east of the Lido is popular with Honeybees.

A small Garden Spider climbed the railings of the Dell. They like to spin their webs between the spikes at the top.

Hemlock Water Dropwort, reputed to be the most poisonous plant in Britain, is flourishing on the waterfront at Peter Pan. If you mistake it for flat-leafed parsley you face two hours of agony as all your muscles go into spasm till you suffocate.