Peering through the leaves

The Little Owls at the Serpentine Gallery are hard to see in the leaves of the plane tree where they are staying at the moment, but I got a reasonable view of the female owlet after a long search to find a gap in the leaves.

Returning later and searching with Julia, we got obstructed views of the male owlet with his mother preening a few feet away on the branch.

Not many Blue Tits have been visible lately, but one came out in the Flower Walk, very tattered from feeding chicks. There was also a Coal Tit singing here.

The Great Tit pair in the big yew in the Dell also reappeared after a long absence.

This is the young Robin at Mount Gate, already with red plumage but still showing a yellow edge at the base of its bill.

While Julia and I were photographing it a younger Robin, still brown and speckled, flew across the path and vanished into the bushes. So there are two nests here.

One of the young Pied Wagtails took a break from hunting midges on the roof of the boat hire building.

The other was looking for insects on the platform below.

All three young Grey Herons from the nest at the east end of the island have started exploring. They were in a bush below the nest. They can fly back when their parents arrive to feed them.

The heron in the Italian Garden got another carp.

The stark stonework of the garden is now softened by plenty of wild plants. We've already seen pictures of the clumps of pretty purple vervain around the edges of the pools and under the railings. Behind the heron are fleabane, marjoram and purple loosestrife. No doubt the gardeners will be sent in soon to lay them waste with strimmers, but meanwhile we can enjoy them.

The Great Crested Grebes remaking their nest at the island have not got far. They may not complete it.

The Coots' nest in the water lilies in the Italian Garden fountains has produced two chicks. Here they are leaving the nest, probably for the first time, and coming out to be fed on the water.

The Coots nesting at the south end of the Peter Pan waterfront have already had one brood this year, of which one chick survived. They have been having another try and this time apparently have only a single chick. Maybe these second nestings are less prolific.

The Coots' second nest on the post does have eggs, maybe three, though you can't see them here. The Coot eyed a Black-Headed Gull disapprovingly, but actually it's only the large gulls that are a threat to them.

Egyptian goslings passed the Mute Swan with her three cygnets at the boathouse.

There are hordes of Red Admiral butterflies. One perched on another unauthorised plant at Peter Pan, water mint. The gardeners' neglect brings an education in British wildflowers.

A Honeybee fed on a Verbena bonariensis flower in the Rose Garden. This is the posh cousin of the wild vervain in the Italian Garden and has bigger flowers, but they are sparse and borne on long straight stems, and in my opinion it is much less pretty.

When the female Emperor Dragonflies are laying eggs, there often seem to be Common Blue Damselflies hanging around. Do they snatch the eggs?

Dragonflies and damselflies often bask on the spikes on the railings when the iron is warmed by the sun. This is a male Black-Tailed Skimmer, the commonest dragonfly in the park.

Invisible owls

The male Little Owl looked out of a shady patch in a lime tree.

I heard the female and one owlet calling in the plane tree, and the other owlet calling in the chestnut next to the nest tree, but in spite of going round both trees several times at different distances I couldn't get a sight of any of them. Sometimes it's just impossible to find a gap in the leaves.

There were few small birds to be seen as they lurked in the shade, but as I was going home along the Flower Walk half a dozen Great Tits came out in a bush to ask for pine nuts.

Canada and Greylag Geese rested in the shade of the trees along the south shore of the Serpentine ...

... but a few Greylags which had already regrown their flight feathers after moulting were making short test flights to get their balance back.

Various ducks and a Coot were shading themselves under the planter along the edge of the Lido restaurant terraace.

The Great Crested Grebes at the island gave up their nest in the wire basket for unknown reasons  -- the Moorhen is still there -- and have started rebuilding at the place halfway along the edge.

All seems to be going well on the nest under the Dell restaurant balcony.

A brisk breeze ruffled up a Moorhen's feathers as it turned downwind.

The elusive Coot chick in the northeast pool of the Italian Garden emerged from the irises to join the other four.

The local Cormorant ...

... and Grey Heron were doing tremendous execution in the pools. It's always the same two birds, it seems. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for both pictures.

The heron fishing under the willow by the bridge is also probably always the same one.

The three young ones in the nest at the east end of the island were getting adventurous. The position of the left one shows that they are already able to make short flying hops.

The Mute Swan 4DVZ led her three remaining cygnets up the lake beyond the island. The Black Swan was dozing on the shore and couldn't be bothered to chase them off.

Anything will do as a toy for a young Herring Gull, even a tiny bit of willow leaf.

A Yellow-Bellied Slider terrapin swam across the Long Water. There are five terrapins in the lake, all originally pets but dumped when they got too big and snappy. They do try to breed, but the climate isn't warm enough for the eggs to hatch.

A male Emperor dragonfly hunted under the parapet of the Italian Garden.

A Red Admiral butterfly drank nectar from an agapanthus in the Dell.

Hungry Little owlet

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in a lime tree, quite hard to see as leafy branches swayed in front of him.

Jin Yucheng waited for an owlet to get hungry in the late afternoon and start begging, and got an excellent picture of the female.

A Greenfinch was still singing in the top of a tall tree near the Italian Garden.

More Great Tits are coming out of the bushes at the southwest corner of the bridge, always a good place for them.

One of the young Pied Wagtails was hunting on the roof of the boat hire building.

Someone had given a Carrion Crow at the island a slice of ham, which it was dunking in the water.

One of this year's young Grey Herons was fishing by the half-timbered boathouse. The oak timbers are solid and not the usual nailed-on planks you see in thousands of suburban houses.

In fact I think this is one of only three genuine half-timbered buildings in Central London. The other two are Staple Inn in High Holborn, built in 1585 and spared by the Great Fire of 1666, and Liberty's department store in Great Marlborough Street, built in mock-Tudor style in 1924 with oak timbers salvaged from two 19th century warships, HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan, which were being scrapped.

When I have seen the newer Coot family in the Italian Garden in recent days only four chicks have been visible.

But there was a fifth one lurking on the nest in the irises.

The Bar-Headed x Greylag Hybrid Goose which comes from St James's Park to moult on the Serpentine is an old favourite, and expects peanuts every time I pass.

Some images from the Round Pond: the single Coot chick on the gravel strip has encountered Bill Haines, and now wears the ring 3TB.

The Egyptian Goose family moved out of the hot sunlight into the shade of a bench.

A Mallard had two new ducklings. No doubt there were more, but the Herring Gulls are hungry anr merciless.

The female Mandarin and two of her young -- I could see three but there may have been more wandering around -- were approached by the Mallards.

The two Mandarin teenagers at the Vista, which are slightly older, now have fully grown wings. They are the two at the front here, with their mother in the background.

The Pochard drake at the Triangle stayed impassively on the kerb as people thronged past him to get to the noisy festival on the Parade Ground, which will be thumping dismally till Thursday.

A male Ruddy Darter dragonfly, Sympetrum sanguineum, rested on an iris in the Dell.

A tiny Flower Fly, a Sphaerophoria species but not identifiable beyond that, perched on a fleabane leaf in the Italian Garden.

There was an Old Man who said, 'Hush! ...'

A Wren preened in a bush in the Dell.

When it paused to call, you could see from its yellow gape that it was a young one.

I was reminded of Edward Lear's limerick and picture:

There was an Old Man who said, 'Hush!

I perceive a young bird in this bush!'

When they said, 'Is it small?'

He replied, 'Not at all!

It is four times as big as the bush!'

The young Robin in the Flower Walk foraged in a flower bed.

A Long-Tailed Tit looked for insects in a hawthorn near the Buck Hill shelter.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery perched in her favourite place in the lime tree as the branches swayed in the breeze.

The female owlet was in the chestnut next to the nest tree.

A Magpie sunbathed on the ground below.

Only one of the usual Jays turned up, but it chased me all along the path to the Vista demanding peanuts, which it cached to eat later.

The tatty Black-Headed Gull was still alone at Fisherman's Keep.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden was fishing in a pool as usual. I missed it yesterday, as it had been chasing two other herons away from its territory.

This Cormorant is also a regular occupant. They keep to different pools and don't disturb each other.

After Duncan Campbell reported a third Moorhen chick at Peter Pan I went looking for it, but it must have been lurking and I only found two.

The two young Egyptian Geese and the two young Mandarins were together with their mothers at the Vista.

The six little Egyptians at the boathouse are now large enough to be out of danger from the Herring Gull that was hanging around.

The Pochard and her teenager could be seen distantly from the Italian Garden. 

A Painted Lady butterfly perched on a wilted oxeye daisy behind the Lido, obligingly providing a background of cornflowers and scabious.

A Comma butterfly on the railings at Mount Gate is always the same one, feeding on the yellow blossom of the hypericum bush.

The little florets at the centre of helenium flowers were keeping Honeybees busy in the Rose Garden.