A second grebe chick

The Great Crested Grebes nesting under the balcony of the Dell restaurant now have two chicks. When one fell off the nest, the parent on the water let it climb aboard.

The nest on the island was a peaceful scene. It's impossible to tell when this third attempt on the site really got under way, so we don't know when hatching will start.

Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of a grebe on the Serpentine swallowing a fair-sized fish. There should still be plenty of little ones for the chicks.

The Coots nesting by the bridge had one chick yesterday, but today it was gone. That seems to be the work of Pigeon Eater, who was perched on a nearby post. One Coot defied him, while the other was turning the eggs. One egg had a hole in the shell and may have been about to hatch.

With five Grey Heron nests on the island, the park is full of herons of various ages. This is one from the fourth nest at the east end of the island, now exploring the shore but still returning to the nest to be fed.

It's hard to see anything in the fifth nest, which is in a treetop, but the young herons are often heard begging and you sometimes get a glimpse of an untidy bundle of feathers through the leaves.

An adult examined the wooden finial on the roof of one of the boathouses.

Ahmet photographed the inhabitant of the Italian Garden hauling up a carp with a large hank of algae, which had to be discarded before the fish could be swallowed. This heron has a distinctive yellow patch in front of its eye.

The resident Cormorant was taking a break to dry its wings.

The male Little Owl looked out from his usual lime tree. I haven't seen an owlet for some time. They may already have been kicked out to fend for themselves. Things happen fast with Little Owls.

The young Green Woodpecker nearby, which we've seen before begging from a parent, found an ants' nest by itself and was eating the unfortunate inhabitants.

Few small birds were visible, but the Great Tit pair in the Dell ...

... and the young Robin at Mount Gate came out for pine nuts.

There are still plenty of Emperor dragonflies at the Italian Garden. A male was hunting under the parapet ...

... and a female laid eggs in a patch of algae.

There are reports of red and yellow dragonflies, presumably males and females of some kind of Darter, around a dead tree on the east side of the Long Water a short way north of the bridge, just short of the place where the path forks. I waited for a while but wasn't lucky.

A Peacock butterfly, a Comma and a Red Admiral fed on a clump of sea lavender in the Rose Garden.

A Greenbottle fly's idea of party time.

The 'blue-green algae' -- actually cyanobacteria -- are back around the Lido just three days after it was declared clear and reopened. I pointed this out to the staff who, to their credit, closed the swimming area.