Starlings surprised

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery posed elegantly in a lime tree.

The male looked out from the leaves of the big plane tree.

The old female Chaffinch in the Flower Walk was eating pyracantha berries, but flew out to catch a thrown pine nut.

The regular Robin was tatty but cheerful, and came out for three pine nuts.

There was a brief burst of Robin song beside the Long Water, the first since they fell silent for their summer break.

One of the Coal Tits appeared in the big yew tree in the Dell.

Feral Pigeons took turns to drink and splash on a duckboard in the Italian Garden fountains, but it was clear that the pale one was the boss of the gang.

Starlings feasting on scraps at the Dell restaurant got a shock when a Lesser Black-Backed Gull and a Magpie arrived on the table.

Cormorants lurched and grunted on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan.

Grey Herons wandered over the Serpentine Road by the island. With 15 young herons hatched this year there is serious overcrowding in the area.

The heron in the Italian Garden was fishing in the northwest pool ...

... which left the young Coots in the southwest pool free to reclaim their nest in the water lilies ...

... while a parent watched from a duckboard.

The only Great Crested Grebe family in sight was the one from the east end of the island with two chicks, which again could be seen on the south side of the island by looking across the lake.

A grebe did a big shrug to settle its feathers after preening.

The four Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep were obediently staying close to their mother.

Yesterday I wrote that the boss Mute Swan on the Long Water, 4HDW, was much less aggressive than the old boss 4DTH. Today he proved me wrong as he advanced under the bridge ...

... with his mate 4DTT and their cygnet to bully the swans on the Serpentine.

Some of the Tufted Duck family could be seen by the reeds east of the Lido. The young ones are now almost adult size but it will be a while before they grow their flight feathers.

Pigeon Eater's tiresome brat

Pigeon Eater was being pestered by his offspring on the Dell restaurant roof. He flew down to the lake ...

... but was followed. He ignored the begging youngster, which is quite old enough to find its own food, and had a wash.

A Black-Headed Gull landed on a post in the Long Water next to a preening Cormorant, which inevitably started the gull preening too.

The male Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery was also preening, in an awkward place in the big plane tree where he could only be seen from one angle through a gap in the leaves.

A Blue Tit ...

... joined the Great Tits in the big yew in the Dell, but I didn't see a Coal Tit there today.

This Jackdaw east of the Lido is now a regular customer for peanuts and comes out every time I go by.

The Great Crested Grebes at the island have now removed their three chicks from the nest, but they were hidden behind overhanging bushes and I couldn't get a picture of them. Their mother revisited the nest briefly and then went off fishing.

The two chicks from the east end of the island had gone round to the south side, where they could only be seen from across the lake. The moored pedalos have plenty of fish lurking under them.

To make up for the lack of good pictures, here are two fine shots taken by Ahmet Amerikali on the small lake in Southwark Park, where the Little Grebes have had three chicks.

A parent caught a fish which was obviously too large for the chicks, but that isn't a problem for Little Grebes, as they can bash the fish about until it falls apart and then feed the bits to the babies. Great Crested Grebes haven't learnt this useful trick.

The Black Swan and 4GIQ were preening quietly together. He has become strangely peaceful, and I confess that I miss his old rambunctious ways.

4DTT was with her single cygnet at the reed bed south of the Vista. Her mate 4HDW dominates the Long Water but is much less of a bully than the old boss.

A pair of Greylag Geese with nine teenagers passed the old water level on the Serpentine. This is one of the families hatched outside the park and brought in when they could fly.

The Egyptian pair guarded their four goslings on the shore nearby.

The reeds and scrub at the east end of the Lido were full of Common Blue damselflies, every one of them mating. No wonder there are so many of them in the park.

A European Drone Fly, Eristalis arbustorum, is a fairly good mimic of a Honeybee, enough to discourage predation. It browsed on a strawflower in the Rose Garden until it was pushed off by a Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris, which was in turn ousted by a Batman Hoverfly, Myathropa florea, a wasp mimic. The hoverfly resisted a further pass by the wasp and carried on eating. You can see the 'Batman logo' marking on the thorax that gives the fly its common name.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was busy on a sunflower.

Three grebe chicks at the island

The male Great Crested Grebe was on the nest at the Serpentine island. There was nothing to see until the female arrived with a fish ...

... which caused three chicks to emerge from his feathers.

The other family at the island were hidden among the moored boats, but the single chick on the other side of the lake was loudly pursuing its father.

The Egyptians brought their four goslings ashore.

The Black Swan and 4GIQ were feeding quietly by the landing stage.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden climbed through the irises to find a good fishing station.

Just along the path, a young Blackbird had eaten a lot of blackberries in a bramble patch and wanted to have a rest. If it hadn't been so dozy I'd never have managed to film it.

The male Blackcap often heard at the southwest corner of the bridge came into view for a moment.

A Coal Tit in the Dell collected a pine nut from the railings and took it up into the big yew tree.

A Jay beside the Long Water waited to fly down for a peanut.

At the Serpentine Gallery the male Little Owl  ...

... and his son weren't taking much notice of anything on the ground.

There was a report of Hobbies north of the Round Pond, the first I've had this year. I had heard what might have been Hobbies in this area before, but Rose-Ringed Parakeets can make a similar call and I had dismissed it and assumed that they were nesting outside the park as they sometimes do. I went up to the pond and yes, there was the call of at least one Hobby flying around, but it was moving fast among the trees and I couldn't see anything.

Two Carrion Crows were looking hot on the parched grass beside the pond.

The Mandarin ducklings were wandering around separately. The last report I had from anyone who had seen them together was yesterday and there were stll eleven of them.

The Egyptian family here had also split up and the teenagers were looking for surviving grass.

A male Emperor dragonfly rested for a moment in purple loosestrife in the Italian Garden.

A Small White butterfly browsed on the little mauve convolvulus flowers at the edge of the Dell.

Definitely a new grebe chick

As I suspected, there really is at least one Great Crested Grebe chick in the nest at the island, but you have to look closely here to see any sign of it on its father's back. There is a slight stirring of feathers at the beginning of this clip, and at the end the chick pokes its head out for a moment. With luck we should get better views later.

The pair from the east end of the island were not far away. The mother dumped the two chicks in the water for them to climb on to their father while she went fishing.

The grebes with a sigle chick had crossed the lake and were at the boat hire platform. All these pairs are quite close together and there will probably be territorial disputes soon.

In past years there has been a Moorhens' nest in a well hidden spot quite high up in the willow tree at the bridge. Earlier this year that part of the tree collapsed into the lake and it seemed that would be the end of the nest. But the Moorhens have carried on as usual, and here are two of their three chicks in the ruin of the tree.

The Ruddy Shelduck is a native of eastern Europe, Asia and North Africa. Any birds seen in the wild are the descendants of captive birds in collections, and they only turn up occasionally. Jon Ferguson found this one on the Thames at Twickenham.

As you can see, it looks quite like an Egyptian Goose, to which it is related. These birds are intermediate between ducks and geese, so their common names are haphazard.

On a hot afternoon an Egyptian Goose kept cool under the fountain on the edge of the Italian Garden.

The nesting raft wrecked by the Black Swan and 4GIQ is sinking at one end, but still provides a place for a pair of Egyptians and a Greylag to stand.

Canada Geese came under the bridge on to the Long Water in a cautious crowd, but the new boss Mute Swan 4HDW is a better tempered bird than the old one, who would have attacked them at once.

A Cormorant at the island played with a ginger Egyptian feather it had found.

A challneging stare from the Czech Black-Headed Gull on the old water level at Fisherman's Keep.

The young Lesser Black-Back that may be Pigeon Eater's offspring was mewling pathetically. It was ignored, it's quite old enough to feed itself.

There are two Grey Herons at the Italian Garden. One occupies the garden itself, and is seen here stalking past a patch of purple loosestrife ...

... and the other fishes around the reed beds on the lake below. If it tries to come up into the garden, where the fishing is better, it gets chased away.

There are still a few Emperor dragonflies over the water here.

Jut one Little owlet could be seen at the Serpentine Gallery, the male.

The female Peregrine was on the barracks tower again. Possibly this pair is actually the same as the one with young seen on the Imperial College bell tower, and they have returned to the barracks after throwing out their offspring.

The female Robin came out at Mount Gate.

A flock of Blue Tits was working through the trees at the northwest corner of the bridge. This is a young one, still grey rather than blue, but now independent and busily looking for larvae on the leaves.