Comparing owls

The Great Crested Grebe chick in the nest under the Dell restaurant was given a feather by its mother. There still only seems to be one, but that is not a cause for alarm as grebes start incubating their eggs as soon as the first one is laid, so they hatch over a period of several days. This doesn't matter to grebes, as the young can be fed on the nest for several days till the last one hatches.

The grebe at the island was turning the eggs. Four can be seen, the usual number though sometimes they lay five.

The Coots nesting at the bridge have hatched their first chick.

Two Coots were fighting in the Italian Garden.

The Black Swan was feeling better today and hurried over for some sunflower hearts.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were away from their usual place at the Dell restaurant and there were four Lesser Black-Backed Gulls on the roof, plus a young one which was in the water begging its parents to feed it. Numbers are visibly going up as they are starting to breed in town, but they have nothing like the big Herring Gull colony at Paddington.

Two of the young Grey Herons from the east end of the island were back in their nest. Though now wandering freely they are not independent yet, and return to the nest to be fed.

The third had gone up to look at the fifth nest, where the chicks are much younger. They are begging noisily whenever they see their parents, so you can see why it had wanted to investigate. The parents were away; otherwise it would have been chased off.

An adult strolled through the tunnel under the bridge. It seems odd to see a bird in a tunnel ...

... but on that subject David Lacey, who has sent us pictures from the park, was in Córdoba in Argentina, where he found a family of Burrowing Owls and sent this picture. They usually nest in burrows left by ground squirrels and other small burrowing mammals. The resemblance to our closely related Little Owls is considerable, though they have longer legs.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual lime tree. In treeless areas Little Owls will also nest in burrows, or in holes in walls.

Theodore found a fallen primary feather from the Peregrines on the Imperial College belltower.

A young Pied Wagtail looked for insects on the platform where the electric boats are charged. The grooves in the non-slip planking collect bird droppings which attract insects, so it's a good hunting ground.

A family of Magpies were horsing around on the edge of the Dell stream.

A Jay near the Italian Garden waited for a peanut.

A Carrion Crow had won two slices of chorizo picante sausage from a pizza. Probably a human had discarded them because there was too much chilli, but birds can't taste the hotness of chilli and are unaffected,

Another Jersey Tiger moth appeared near the Italian Garden. It's unlikely that the damage to the oak leaves was caused by the caterpillar of one of these moths, as they prefer softer leaves such as nettles and willow.

A Honeybee browsed on a Busy Lizzie in the Flower Walk ...

... and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee fed on knapweed behind the Lido.