Young Green Woodpeckers

Several Green Woodpeckers called around the Long Water. A young one with speckled juvenile plumage climbed a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

At Mount Gate another fledgling followed its mother, begging for insects.

She fed it in a tree.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery appeared near the top of the chestnut tree where the pair nested.

The male Blackbird in the Rose Garden flower beds caught another moth. It's a Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. Curiously, noctua is Latin for Little Owl, whose scientific name is Athene noctua as it is the goddess's sacred bird.

A Wren perched on a bag of green waste in the Dell. Since the leaf yard is being revamped, all the cut branches and dead leaves are having to be taken by lorry to Regent's Park.

The Great Tit pair in the Dell have returned to the corkscrew hazel bush.

One of this year's young Grey Herons was fishing in the stream ...

... and an adult commandeered a Coots' nest on the Long water, built on a remaining branch of the big horse chestnut that fell into the lake years ago and has now largely rotted away.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull is back, and was standing on the old water level at Fisherman's Keep, looking round at the territory it dominates. It was hatched on a lake at Hobšovice, a few miles northwest of Prague, in 2021, and was given the metal ring ET05.589. It migrated to Hyde Park in its first winter, presumably with some unringed gulls from the same place, and has been here every year since. In 2023 the park bird ringer Bill Haines caught it and put on a plastic ring, Orange 2V57.

A Starling on the Dell restaurant terrace had won a chip from an abandoned plate.

The Great Crested Grebe pair nesting under the restaurant balcony were constantly togther, fussing about. It looks as if their eggs are beginning to hatch.

The Mute Swan 4DVZ and her three cygnets rested on the nearby shore.

One of the Moorhen chicks at Peter Pan had got separated from its parents and swam around squeaking plaintively. It did find them eventually.

A Coot chick was also alone on the collapsed willow by the bridge.

The second generation of Speckled Wood butterflies has emerged in the Flower Walk, in the place on the north side where they breed every year. This one was already slightly tattered. They are very territorial and fight each other.

A Common Carder bee browsed on an agapanthus in the Rose Garden.

A gigantic hibiscus flower fully 6 inches across has come out in one of the rose beds.

Changing places

Three Little Owls were visible at the Serpentine Gallery: the father in the lime tree where his mate usually goes ...

... his mate in the lime where he usually perches ...

... and the female owlet in the chestnut.

A young Jay in a holly tree in the Flower Walk called for its parents to feed it.

One of the parents applied for a peanut.

I hadn't seen any Jackdaws for several days, but a visit to the Round Pond produced some, all eager for peanuts.

One of the Great Tits in the yew in the Dell ate a pine nut.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden hijacked a Coots' nest to pick insects out of it. The Coots and their two chicks just had to wait at the edge of the pool till it's finished.

The Coots on the nest at the bridge changed places ...

... and so did the Great Crested Grebes on the island.

Julia filmed the Mandarin mother on the Round Pond sheltering her eleven ducklings from the stiff breeze. This was on Monday, but when I visited today Thursday she still had eleven.

Ten of them were with her or reasonably near, but the eleventh had wandered off round the edge of the pond. Mandarin duckings do have a tendency to stray.

The Tufted Duck mother supervised her eight ducklings as they dived busily by the boat hire platform.

The Canada Geese on the Long Water were trying out their newly regrown flight feathers, and charged down the lake in a mob.

A fox at the Vista stared gravely at a crowd of visitors who were taking pictures of it.

There were a lot of Emperor and Lesser Emperor dragonflies at the Italian Garden. A male Emperor rested on an iris leaf ...

... while a female was laying eggs.

Two Honeybees worked over a sunflower in the Rose Garden.

More Tufted ducklings

A Tufted Duck on the Serpentine has produced 8 ducklings. Sensibly, she was keeping them in the shelter of the boat hire platform. This is a dangerous place for ducklings, with roving Herring Gulls ready to swoop.

Next to them were the Mute Swan 4DVZ and her three cygnets ...

... and 4DTT was looking after her two under the Italian Garden.

The Great Crested Grebe on the nest opposite Peter Pan is holding on to it, though there were Coots around. One of the chicks was sitting next to the nest, but all was peaceful for the time being.

The Coot nesting on the raft at the Triangle seems to have given up the attempt.

Only one egg could be seen in the abandoned nest. Possibly Herring Gulls had taken the others. They can easily pick up a Coot's egg -- indeed they can hold a tennis ball in their beak.

Both adult Coots and their chicks enjoy skirting the fountains in the Italian Garden so that they are wetted by the spray.

The Moorhen chicks on the fallen tree at the Peter Pan waterfront are growing well.

A pair of Herring Gulls at the Triangle were maning affectionately at each other, but suddenly had a falling out. Afterwards all was forgiven and they went back to moaning.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked out from his usual lime tree.

The female owlet was in the chestnut, refusing to pose for her portrait.

The Great Tits are coming back from their summer seclusion, and the regular pair at the northest corner of the bridge ...

... and in the Dell came down for pine nuts. I also got a brief glimpse of one of the Coal Tits here, but no picture.

Plenty of butterflies were on show. Meadow Browns have been out for weeks, but are hard to photograph as they rest in the long grass. One came out on a knapweed flower at the back of the Lido.

A Green-Veined White fed on a field sowthistle near the Italian Garden.

A Brimstone was drinking in a wet patch at the edge of the Dell where a sprinkler was operating. There were no flowers, and apparently it was just drinking water.

Then it flew to an agapanthus and had a conventional drink of nectar.

There was also a bee here, and I'm not sure about it. The yellow bands at front and back of the thorax suggest a Garden Bumblebee, Bombus hortorum, but if it was you would expect the tip of its abdomen to be whiter.

The unpredictability of owls

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his current favourite lime tree. But just when you think an owl has settled into a habit he gets tired of the place, moves to another tree, and has to be searched for again.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks, indistinct in the dust and haze and I had to adjust the picture considerably from the vague grey original.

A young Magpie probed the bark of a tree near Mount Gate.

Two Wood Pigeons drank and splashed at the top of the waterfall in the Dell.

The adult Great Tits look very tattered after the breeding season but the young ones, now more or less adult in appearance, are immaculate.

Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of a Long-Tailed Tit behind the Lido. At least one pair nests here every year.

He also photographed a young Blackcap at the southwest corner of the bridge. Its father is still singing there, hidden deep in the bushes.

Cormorants were resting on the baskets around the island. Numbers are rising as this year's young fish are now large enough to be worth catching.

The Cormorant that fishes in the Italian Garden pools was drying its wings, ignoring people passing within a couple of feet of it.

The Grey Heron was busy as usual. David Element got a fine shot of it leaping off the kerb of a pool.

The young herons from the nest at the east end of the island, now flying around freely but still returning to the nest to be fed, seem to have taken up residence on the plastic boats moored below the nest.

The Great Crested Grebes on the Long Water have retaken their nest site from Coots that occupied it. The result coulkd go either way ...

... but the pair at the island seem well settled now ...

... and the nest under the Dell restaurant balcony should be hatching in a few days.

The much used fallen tree at Peter Pan has been occupied by Canada Geese, to the annoyance of the Coots that were raising a family there.

A pair of Red-Veined Darter dragonflies at the Round Pond, photographed by David Element.

It looks as if these will become a regular breeding species in the park, but this is by no means certain. They fly in from the European mainland, easily crossing the Channel with their powerful flight. Most of them in the park are at the Round Pond, since this is visible from the air at quite a distance, but this is a bad breeding place, much too exposed. However, they have also spread down to the Long Water, where there is floating vegetation at the edge in which they can lay their eggs.

Ahmet Amerikali captured a male Lesser Emperor in flight at the Italian Garden.

With a large range of flowers to choose from in the Rose Garden, Honeybees are still going to the little clover flowers on the lawn.