Another Little Grebe

A surprise today: another Little Grebe, a teenager, on the Serpentine. 

It was diving busily and completely ignoring the people who were looking at it on the shore. Did the adult pair on the Long Water, at present with small chicks, breed earlier in the year, or did this one fly in from somewhere?

The family on the Long Water have stayed under the collapsed willow by the bridge, a good spot as the tree gives excellent cover and there are plenty of small fish among the submerged branches. Occasionally one or two come out in the open and can be photographed from not too far away.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine stood up to shake out his wings.

The staff of the boat hire service on the lake have powerboats with 55 horsepower outboard motors and race about like complete hooligans, endangering humans and birds alike and raising an enormous wake. A Moorhen and her chick on the edge by the island were disturbed by the crashing waves.

A teenage Moorhen wandered along a floating branch in the Long Water. It's just beginning to develop its adult red bill.

There was a large mob of Coots on the Long Water. Every year there are more of these prolific birds, at the expense of the Moorhens which they persecute.

The Greylag family group was resting on the edge at Fisherman's Keep. It includes several adults as well as the young ones, all presumably related as they always stick together.

The four Egyptian goslings were nearby with their devoted mother.

One of the Cormorants at the island, apparently always the same one, likes balancing precariously on a chain even when there is a stable post to stand on.

Pigeon Eater was dozing on the Dell restaurant roof, probably after a large lunch, with his mate preening beside him.

A Black-Headed Gull turned downwind and was ruffled by the brisk breeze.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery appeared in her usual lime tree in the afternoon.

A couple of Carrion Crows enjoyed the spray from the marble fountain in the Italian Garden.

This Magpie near the Buck Hill shelter had been given a walnut. If they are spoilt with expensive treats they'll start scorning the humble peanuts I give them.

A Jay waiting in a willow looked to be a young one, immaculate unlike the adults worn threadbare by raising them.

The usual Robin in the Flower Walk has also lost a lot of feathers. There are two Robins in this section, both tatty and almost certainly a pair, and although the breeding season is long over they haven't yet started fighting each other. Some of the Robins are just beginning to sing again.

The durable strawflowers in the Rose Garden are much visited by hoverflies. This is a European Drone Fly, Eristalis arbustorum, which has been more numerous this year than the Common Drone Fly E. tenax.