Swan manoeuvres

There has been an upset in the established order of the Mute Swans. Until recently the Long Water was the established territory of the new boss swan 4HDW and his mate 4DTT, the widow of the previous boss 4DTH. All intruders were chased back under the bridge. But for a couple of days there has been quite a crowd here, and today they were joined by the Black Swan and his mate 4GIQ. He was having a faceoff with a Grey Heron ...

... and when 4HDW and 4DDT's cygnet arrived he shooed it away.

Meanwhile 4HDW and 4DTT were at Peter Pan by themselves, clearly having lost some kind of contest and preening to console themselves. Is the Black Swan trying to take over the Long Water?

The motley crew of Cormorants, Moorhens, Mallards, Tufted Ducks and Common Pochards on the fallen tree at Peter Pan were joined by a Red-Crested Pochard drake, seen above the flying Mallard in this picture.

Two of the three Great Crested Grebe chicks chased their mother past the Vista.

The two from the nest on the north side of the island were resting by the Lido restaurant.

The Little Grebes were under the bridge. The chicks are now almost as large as their parents and eating substantial fish.

Pigeon Eater gave a food container by the Dell restaurant a cursory check before going back to hunting.

Two Grey Wagtails were hunting insects on the edge of the restaurant terrace, an adult and a young one. The young bird is already independent and no longer being fed. 

It flew off to the other end of the terrace. Spilt food from the restaurant brings plenty of insects, and there are often wagtails here and at the Lido restuarant.

A Blue Tit waited among rose hips in the Rose Garden.

The young Robin is already coming out of the flower bed to take pine nuts from the path.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge has been a regular customer for two years.

A Jay on the other side of the path had a background of mauve autumn crocuses.

There are only a few olives in this tree by the Lido restaurant, and a Wood Pigeon was struggling to reach any of them.

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

Common Carder bees are fast moving and restless, and only spend a few seconds on each sunflower in the Rose Garden before flying off to the next -- unlike the large bumblebees which go carefully over the whole flower and may spend several minutes on one.

Another was browsing on something I had never heard of, a Seven Son Flower. There are several large bushes newly planted in the circle in the Rose Garden, conveniently flowering in autumn to suit the bees as other flowers wither. It's a Chinese species and, as so often with numbered plants, the number is wrong -- as you can see the flowers form in clusters of six.