Little Grebe chicks on the Long Water

There is just one pair of Little Grebes in the park and they have hatched chicks. I have only known this species to breed here once before, but all their chicks were soon taken. However, this pair has quite a safe place among the reeds on the west side of the Long Water. The net only reaches down to water level and the chicks are diving under it without trouble. The family could only be viewed from the bridge and were at least a hundred yards away, so I haven't got good pictures. But you can see that there are four chicks ...

... and that they are being fed on small fish ...

... and insects.

The video shows that the parents are very active in getting food for them. Let's wish them success.

By the Serpentine island the father of the two Great Crested Grebe chicks shook himself impatiently. Even grebe parents get worn down by their insatiable squeaking young.

The eldest chick on the other side of the lake preened its immaculate white underside.

A Moorhen in one of the wire baskets at the island preened next to a nest that has become a sort of plastic tent with a roof. You can see from the size of the twigs that this isn't the Moorhen's nest and was clearly built by a Coot.

The Mute Swan 4DTT brought her cygnet over to the Vista to try a bit of begging.

The four Egyptian goslings were in good order at Fisherman's Keep.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden swallowed a perch. Because of the spiny dorsal fin of these fish they can only be swallowed head first, so the heron flips it into the air to turn it and catches it neatly.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from a lime tree. She had fluffed up her eyebrows to the max, and when I first saw her I though she was the male. The raised feathers at the corners of her face almost form ear tufts.

The male was harder to see in the big plane tree.

A Jackdaw approached in the Diana fountain enclosure to ask for a peanut.

A Jay near the Italian Garden had the same idea.

A Long-Tailed Tit paused in a hawthorn on the other side of the path.

The Coal Tits in the Dell can be summoned by putting pine nuts on the railings.

The Robin in the scrub east of the Lido is very shy and hasn't grasped the idea of being fed.

There has been an odd shortage of terrapins on the Long Water. Earlier this year there were five and they were often seen together, but in the past few weeks there have only been occasional sightings of a single one.