Chiffchaff stare

A Chiffchaff in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Flower Walk gave the camera a severe stare.

The familiar Robin was waiting in a flower bed. It has a trace of yellow at the base of its bill, so it must be one of this year's young ones in its first suit of adult feathers.

One of the Jays tattered from parenting was in a tree. It will have to wait till autumn before it looks respectable again.

A Long-Tailed Tit extracted a midge from a catalpa tree near the Italian Garden.

A young Wood Pigeon flew into an elder tree to search for berries, but they had all gone.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked out from a lime tree.

The recent hot weather has left a thick layer of algae and general filth along the edge of the Serpentine. The Black-Headed Gull who visits the lake from Prague every year pattered his feet to try to bring up something edible from the muck. Gulls really do have cast-iron immune systems.

A Lesser Black-Backed Gull rested on the solar panel at the Lido which powers some kind of measuring instrument. It had dark eyes, which are probably the legacy of having had bird flu and recovered.

The four Little Grebe chicks on the Long Water could be seen from the bridge.

You can get a slightly closer view through a gap in the bushes on the east side of the lake. A parent brought a fish to the chicks, which had retreated behind the netting around the reed bed. They are absolutely hoovering up small fish for their young.

One of the two Great Crested Grebe chicks at the island was given a fish that looked too large for it to swallow ...

... but it managed, with an effort.

The single chick on the far side was relentlessly chasing its parents. It has now started diving after them, which is the first stage in learning how to fish.

The solitary Moorhen in the Dell, which lost its mate to a fox several years ago, has finally found a new partner. They were together on the small waterfall.

A young Moorhen in drab teenage brown cruised past Peter Pan.

The durable sea lavender in the Rose Garden is still in flower, and was visited by a Common Carder Bee. The butterlies have all gone except for a few Small Whites.

The hoverflies of the genus Eristalis are a confusing lot and I am never sure of identifying them. I think this one on an orange stonecrop flower is a European Drone Fly, E. arbustorum ...

... and this one on a strawflower is a Common Drone Fly, E. tenax. But there is little doubt about the smaller insect it's sharing the flower with: a Thick-Legged Drone Fly, Syritta pipiens.