Owl on a dim day

On a chilly grey day it was a surprise to see the male Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage out on the edge of his hole. This is on the shaded side of the tree and the dim light has reduced the colours in the picture almost to monochrome sepia.

There was a bit of colour at Mount Gate, where the local male Chaffinch perched in currant blossom ...

... and there was a Blue Tit in the forsythia.

Another Blue Tit perched on the Russian olive bush in the Rose Garden, undeterred by its ferocious spikes.

This bush, Elaeagnus angustifolia, is sometimes called 'oleaster', which is misleading as it is nothing to do with the unrelated true oleaster or wild olive, Olea oleaster, which was the source of the olive wreaths awarded to victors at the ancient Olympic Games.

A Coal Tit preferred a rose bush.

A Long-Tailed Tit near the Italian Garden turned round on a twig but its tail didn't, catching on a bud. The agile bird wasn't bothered by this, which must happen all the time.

A male Greenfinch perched in the top of an alder, a favourite tree with finches of all kinds which eat the seeds of its black fruits in winter when there aren't many insects.

A Jackdaw in a hawthorn below looked about to go supersonic.

A female Pied Wagtail was catching midges on the roof of the boat hire building. One sneaked past her.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes fished together under the edge of the platform. The male is on the left here, as you can see from his wider crest.

The second brood of two young Grey Herons on the island could be seen through myrobalan blossom. They are already almost fully grown, though it will be some time before they are independent.

The Black Swan chased off 4GIQ's Mute mate.

He has made a nest by the Diana fountain reed bed, and was trying to get her interested in it. She tolerates him but remains indifferent.

The undergrowth at the Triangle gave a pair of Mute Swans a selection of grasses and weeds to vary their diet.

The pair of Egyptian Geese from the Rose Garden were in the Dell, grazing under the big old pink magnolia tree.

The mothers at Fisherman's Keep ...

... and the Lido were sheltering their goslings, so it wasn't possible to count them.

A sadly thin and tatty fox with an injured hind leg limped across the path by the Henry Moore sculpture.

A wet day

Ten Egyptian goslings have appeared at the Lido on a rainy day.

They huddled under their mother to keep warm. There wasn't quite enough room for so many.

A pair of Pied Wagtails hunted along the edge. They always keep a certain distance apart to avoid collisions in their lightning-fast takeoff.

A closer look shows that this is a different pair from the familiar one, as their feet are in perfect condition.

A Coal Tit perched among hanging drops in the corkscrew hazel in the Dell.

Blue Tits seem to get wetter than Great Tits. One reason may be that they have a crest that they can put up, while Great Tits have a compact mass of little feathers on their head.

This Great Tit in the dogwood bush at Mount Gate was almost bone dry. It must have been staying in shelter.

The local male Robin was looking bedraggled in a holly tree.

A Blackbird, which had been singing happily on a higher twig, took flight.

Blackbirds like rain, which brings up worms. This one was hunting in a flower bed in the Rose Garden.

A Carrion Crow at Fisherman's Keep was slightly damp but eager for a peanut.

So were two Jays and a Magpie in a hawthorn by the Queen's Temple.

The male Peregrine on the barracks was looking miserable.

The Grey Heron the the west nest endured the conditions stoically.

The young ones in the other nests were hunkered down out of sight.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were waterproof and unaffected.

So was a Coot on the nesting basket at the Triangle, but it was still nattering crossly.

A Gadwall preened unconcernedly in the downpour. A bit of water on the feathers helps to get them smoothed.

One owl is enough

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down severely from the chestnut tree.

A Green Woodpecker probed for insects under a tree nearby ...

... and a Jay was expecting a peanut.

Jackdaws can turn up anywhere.

A Starling at the Lido restaurant had won a bit of pizza crust, which it took away to eat in private without the others trying to grab it.

I was trying to photograph a Chiffchaff when it launched itself into the air.

Blue Tits ...

... and Great Tits perched in cherry blossom in the Rose Garden.

A Long-Tailed Tit hunted in the bushes near Mount Gate ...

... where all three Robins were singing. This is the unattached one in the dogwood bush.

Two sets of two Grey Heron chicks on adjacent nests on the island set each other clattering.

Pigeon Eater's mate stepped in for her share of the latest kill as he went off to wash the blood from his face. He is very particular about his appearance.

A male Mute Swan was occupying the nest site at the edge of the Lido restaurant terrace. Nick the Wildlife Officer had put down some straw here. It isn't a good place, far too exposed, and has never succeeded. There's a floating nest basket nearby which the swans are completely ignoring.

The Black Swan and 4GIQ were under the small willow at the Triangle.

One pair of Egyptian Geese was along the road towards the boathouses, still with seven goslings ...

... and the other was at Fisherman's Keep, also still with seven.

On the gravel strip in the Long Water you could see Shoveller and Pochard drakes, a pair of Mallards, a Gadwall drake, and a female Tufted Duck out of focus in the foreground.

There were no exotic bees on the paperbushes in the Dell, but plenty of male Hairy-Footed Flower Bees. These greatly outnumber females.

Two by two

Grey Heron chicks have a way of appearing unexpectedly. I had no idea there were any in this nest in the middle of the island until they started making a racket while I was filming the other two young herons just a few yards away, which were quietly preening on top of their nest.

Here are the first two Grey Heron chicks preening on top of their nest. They are getting more adventurous and climbing around, though not yet quite ready to leave the nest. It was the loud shrieks heard while I was filming this that brought the younger two chicks to my notice.

Both the broods of seven Egyptian goslings were still intact, the older ones at Fisherman's Keep ...

... and the younger ones on the other side by the boathouses.

Two Little Owls were on view, both male. This is the one at the Serpentine Gallery ...

... and here is the one at the Ranger's Cottage.

There were also two groups of Starlings enjoying a furious bath at the Lido restaurant and in a swampy patch in Kensington Gardens.

And there were two kinds of bee together in the paperbushes in the Dell. A European Orchard Bee, Osmia cornuta, being buzzed by a male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee. I'd never even heard of the former, but it was kindly identified in the comments.

There is a patch of spurge around the bushes, where a hoverfly was feeding on the odd green flowers. It is Eupeodes luniger, and better known by that name than its cumbersome English handle Common Spotted Field Syrph. The people who name insects are not noted for conciseness. Crescent Moon Fly would have been much neater.

Two fine pictures by Tom from two days ago: a pair of Great Crested Grebes dancing by the Lido restaurant ...

... and the Cetti's Warbler at the Vista in flight.

There are two kinds of wattle at the north gate of the Rose Garden, both used by Blue Tits waiting to fly down for pine nuts. This is a Cootamundra Wattle ...

... and this is a Wedge-Leaf Wattle.

Inside the garden, a Carrion Crow was trying its best to look sweet in pink cherry blossom.

Ahmet Amerikali was at the northwest corner of the bridge and found a Long-Tailed Tit carrying a feather, showing that they have reached the stage of adding the lining to their large and complex nest, which takes weeks to build.

I didn't see them when I passed the spot, but a Coal Tit I hadn't seen before was singing in a treetop.

A Chiffchaff sang near the Queen's Temple.

This disgraceful signpost at Temple Gate has been sending visitors in wrong directions for years. Every single finger on it is grossly out in various ways. You can see the Diana fountain over the road in this shot, with the signpost pointing directly away from it.