Keeping track of the families

The Little Grebes on the Long Water were in the reeds, with an unattractive collection of plastic bottles thrown in by slobbish visitors. It looks as if they have lost one chick and are down to three.

Two of the chicks had a wash and a preen while waiting for their parents to bring them fish.

The third followed a parent out on to the lake and was given a ruffe. The parent had to adjust the position of the fish carefully so that it was offered to the chick head first, necessary because of its spiny dorsal fin.

Ahmet Amerikali has been keeping his eye on the Little Grebes at Southwark Park, which are now down to one chick, but it's already becoming independent and has a good chance of survival. A parent caught a Common Darter dragonfly.

On the Serpentine a pair of Great Crested Grebes with two chicks appeared off the Lido. I don't know whether they were the ones from the Long Water or the ones that nested on the north side of the island, and it's quite possible that these two are actually the same. In either case they have lost one chick. The father caught a perch too large for the chicks and ate it himself.

Farther down the lake, the pair from the east end of the island saw one of the adults approaching alone and advanced menacingly. That was enough to send the intruder away. Grebes with chicks have a moral advantage and always win territorial contests over singles. However, if the intruder had brought its own two chicks nearer the other family there would have been a grand display of menacing gestures. She returned to the family and the parents had a little display to congratulate each other.

The long established Moorhen in the Dell regards the small waterfall as its personal property and didn't like a Feral Pigeon walking about on it.

The number of Cormorants is building up to its autumn peak. There was a row of them on the posts at the bridge.

All the posts at the island were occupied and one Cormorant perched on a boathouse roof.

The father of the four Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep guarded them as they went over the bare ground to a reasonable patch of grass. The smallest gosling, second from right, was slightly weak and unsteady on its feet, though it was eating. Let's hope it's just a passing indisposition. I gave it some sunflower hearts to strengthen it.

A young Pied Wagtail hunted along the slimy edge by the Dell restaurant. There was a trail of bright turquoise across the pavement where some idiotic dog owner had let his pet into the toxic mess of cyanobacteria.

The Starlings were busy at the Lido restaurant.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from the big plane tree.

There was a pure white Feral Pigeon on the path by the Italian Garden. It seems to be a new one, as the white pigeon seen here before had got quite grubby.

There are always Jays in the area between the Flower Walk and Temple Gate, probably always the familiar pair and their two offspring which are now completely adult in appearance but much smarter than their worn parents.

The young male Chaffinch in the Flower Walk was waiting on a twig.

So was the smarter of the two Robins, in exactly the same place as I saw it yesterday.

The female Coal Tit appeared in the yew tree at the corner of the Dell and posed quite patiently on a twig. She knows she'll be fed after I've photographed her.