The widowed swan gets her cygnets after all

This Mute Swan is 4DTT, the widow of the notorious boss swan 4DTH who died earlier this year. She has found a new mate, 4HDW, who is now the new boss of the Long Water, and has just hatched two cygnets. She was taking them past the Peter Pan waterfront, hoping to find someone feeding the birds.

The other mother, 4DVT, was at the Serpentine island with her three.

So was the Tufted Duck from the Long Water, now with only two ducklings.

A Mandarin at the Round Pond has just produced eleven ducklings. This is the third brood of Mandarins on the pond this year, and there are also two young Mandarins, now teenagers, on the lake. Of course casualties are heavy, but it really seems that Mandarin are now an established breeding species in the park.

The mother of the teenagers was at the Vista. The female teenager now has exactly the same plumage as hers, but she has the long wings of a full adult.

The male Great Crested Grebe at the island was resting in front of the completed nest, so there aren't any eggs yet.

The nest at the Dell restaurant has been firmly established and probably with eggs at least since 22 June. The gestation time for a Great Crested Grebe is 27 to 29 days, so we may see chicks in nine or ten days.

I never thought the Coot chicks would realise that the duckboards are a way of getting in and out of the Italian Garden fountains, but the five in the northeast pool have got the idea.

The ponds are teeming with young carp three or four inches long ...

... but the local Cormorant ...

... and Grey Heron are going for bigger fish.

The heron also caught a female Emperor dragonfly which had carelessly strayed too close. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for the last three pictures.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen lurking in a lime tree, but the others were lurking more effectively and I couldn't find them.

The Peregrines were both on the barracks tower. The male is on the right of this picture.

A Jay waited for a peanut in the Flower Walk. Most of the small birds were sheltering in the bushes and I only saw a few Great Tits.

A Marmalade Fly, Episyrphus balteatus, browsed on an agapanthus in the Dell.

Female Common Blue Damselflies can be various colours, green, grey and beige, but also blue like the males. But these two pictures of the same pair mating at Peter Pan show that she is only blue on the upper surface of her abdomen. She also has brown eyes.