Long-Tailed Tit flocks

The damage to the horse chestnut trees caused by leaf miner moth is good news for the Long-Tailed Tits, which pick the larvae off the leaves.

Several flocks were going around the park, in company with other small birds such as Blue Tits and Coal Tits. This one was at Mount Gate.

The male Robin here was slightly tatty from rearing young ...

... but a Great Tit in the Dell had lost more feathers.

However, neither of them was as thoroughly wrecked as the poor Jays at Temple Gate, whose insatiable offspring chased them for weeks.

A young Robin in a holly near the Vista had clearly been at the blackberries.

A Song Thrush near the Italian Garden had a trace of juvenile yellow at the base of its bill showing that it too was young.

The Blackcaps at the southwest corner of the bridge are more heard than seen, but one came out for a moment in a holly tree.

A Wren chattered in an aucuba bush behind the Albert Memorial.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual lime tree.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull stood on the old water level at Fisherman's Keep.

The new Egyptian Goose family seen yesterday was on the shore nearby. Thwre are four goslings, which wandered down the edge of the lake supervised by their parents.

The fallen poplar by Peter Pan provides a resting place for all kinds of birds. A Pochard watched some Canada Geese preening.

At the far end of the tree the Mute Swans and their single cygnet shooed off a Black-Headed Gull.

The other family came up the lake towards the bridge. This is the territory of the Black Swan, but he is in a subdued mood at the moment, and is not attacking them.

A Moorhen on the edge of the lower bowl of the marble fountain in the Italian Garden was surrounded by falling water, keeping it confortably cool.

A Red Admiral butterfly rested at the southwest corner of the bridge. Many of the Red Admirals we see are migrants that have crossed the Channel ...

... but their journey is nothing to that of the Painted Ladies, which travel from Africa as far as Scandinavia, going through as many as six generations on a migration of as much as 9000 miles. This is considerably farther than the famous migration of Monarch butterflies in North America.

An exotic rumour

Both the adult Little Owls at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen, the male in his usual lime tree ...

... and the female in the big plane tree.

I haven't heard any more from the owl north of the Flower Walk. It will only be possible to find it in this well wooded area if it's calling.

The male Peregrine was by himself on the barracks tower.

A Jackdaw near the Lido came trotting over for a pine nut.

The tatty state of the Jays at Temple Gate hasn't diminished their appetite.

More Great Tits are coming out at at the foot of the steps.

Two Cormorants stood on the fallen tree at the far side of the Vista.

It's hard to see into this year's fifth Grey Heron nest on the Serpentine island, as it's high in a treetop. But as the young birds grow they become more visible, and it's now possible to see that there are three of them.

Two herons regularly visit the Dell, the adult seen yesterday and this young one. It's surprsing that it can see any fish in the filthy water.

The swimming area at the Lido has just been closed, not before time. The local Canada and Greylag Geese promptly took it over as a place to hang out, and there was also a Grey Heron.

A pair of Egyptian Geese have brought out some new goslings at Fisherman's Keep. You can see three here, but it's quite likely that there were more sheltering under their mother' wings.

The Black Swan rested in the shade of the willow tree at the Triangle.

The three Mute cygnets sprawled behind the fence at the boathouse. The bits of stick littering the ground are the remains of an attempt by another pair to nest here.

There is no sign of progess at the Great Crested Grebes' nest on the island, and I'm beginning to worry that the eggs may be infertile.

The shire horses had just finished a stint on Buck Hill and were being led away for a rest and a feed.

In the Rose Garden a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee climbed from one sea lavender flower to the next.

The Cootamundra wattle at the north gate has delicate blue-grey leaves.

Lastly, an exotic rumour. I spoke to a man who regularly goes through Hyde Park at night after a late shift. He had several times seen a creature on the south edge of Hyde Park, near the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, that he was fairly sure was a Serval. These are considerably larger than domestic cats, so it couldn't have been one of those expensive spotted Bengal Cat hybrids. Here is Thomas Bewick's wood engraving of a Serval, from his General History of Quadrupeds, 1800. Whatever this creature may be, it's definitely something to look out for.

More Little Owls?

It was a very hot day and most of the small birds were sheltering in the shade, but the male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen in his usual lime tree.

I also heard a Little Owl call, unmistakably a male, just north of the Flower Walk opposite the circular yew hedge where the path leads to the Albert Memorial. I went there but couldn't see anything. There was also a faint and brief sound that seemed to be an owlet begging, but I'm not at all sure about that. This was certainly not the owl in the picture above, as the photograph was taken only a few minutes later and 100 yards away. I don't think the male owlet from the Serpentine Gallery would be making adult calls yet, so it looks as if we have another pair.

The usual Peregrine pair were on the barracks tower, with the male on the right here. There was no sign of young ones. So it seems that the young Peregrines seen at Imperial College are from a different pair.

A young Green Woodpecker could be seen under a tree by the Serpentine Gallery. It wasn't chasing a parent, so it seems to have achieved independence.

The Long-Tailed Tits were busy in the Flower Walk. They spend much time in hawthorns, which evidently have a large population of insects.

The young Pied Wagtail on the electric boat charging platform examined a cleat that hadn't been screwed on properly.

The Grey Heron on the Dell had taken over the rock in the stream again. The electric pump for the waterfall has failed yet again, and the water is stagnant and smelly. 

The female Great Crested Grebe bringing a fish to the chicks called to urge one of them to take it. In grebe language this short call means 'Hurry up' or 'Get on with it.'

The pair at the island changed places on the nest, but there is still no sign of hatching. After the interrupted history of this nest we really don't know when they started.

These Coot chicks in the Italian Garden fountains don't really need to be fed, as they can pick at algae by themselves, but their parents like to fuss over them.

The Tufted ducklings on the Serpentine are already expert divers, and are spending more time under water than on the surface. This makes them very hard to count, especially as they tend to stray off, but I think there are still seven of them.

The Mute Swans with three cygnets were resting behind the boathouse railings ...

... and the single cygnet was with its mother at Peter Pan.

After I mentioned that the fallen trees in the Long Water were a useful resource for birds, L. Fairfax pointed out that the same must be true for insects. Certainly the waterfront at Peter Pan, which has several fallen trees on both sides, is crowded with dragonflies and damselflies. By far the commonest is the Black-Tailed Skimmer. This is a male.

Painted Lady butterflies are still numerous in the Rose Garden. This one was resting on a juniper bush.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee worked its way over a sunflower.

The notices about 'blue-green algae' (which are actually not algae but cyanobacteria) are out again. In the background you can see the Lido ...

... which is still open for swimming. Perhaps it is a mistake to expect rational behaviour from the park management.

Staying in the shade

The temperature is going up again, and rain is a distant memory. Mute Swans clustered in the shade of a weeping willow tree to preen.

Mallards took advantage of the shade of the planters along the edge of the Lido restaurant.

A pair of Canada Geese cooled down with a brisk wash.

A Feral Pigeon sunbathed on the parched grass under the Henry Moore sculpture. I don't think they do this because they enjoy the sensation of warmth -- in fact in their thick feather coats they must be quite uncomfortable. It may be because the heat causes the fleas and lice in their feathers to rise to the surface where they can be removed by preening.

During the last hot spell the small songbirds were almost invisible as they lurked in the bushes, but now the Great Tits ...

... and Blue Tits in the shrubbery at the southwest corner of the bridge are quite keen to come out for pine nuts.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from his lime tree. The drought is turning the leaves brown and they are starting to fall off ...

... and on the lawn under the Dell two Carrion Crows were eating them, most unexpectedly. The ordinary Small-Leafed Lime, Tilia cordata, planted all over the park, is a fragrant tree -- the French make its flowers into a tisane -- and perhaps the leaves are tasty. But I've never seen crows do this before.

One of the sadly tatty Jay parents was waiting for a peanut by Temple Gate. They'll regrow their feathers in the autumn.

Pigeon Eater and his mate are less often seen than formerly at the Dell restaurant, as the reduction in the number of people feeding birds has led to fewer Feral Pigeons on the shore here. He is still taking pigeons in other places, and you often see his distinctive leftovers of a pair of wings with everything else eaten.

The three young Grey Heron siblings were still together on the fallen tree across the Long Water from the Vista. Soon the friendship of nestmates will fade and they will become standoffish adults.

A young heron looked down from the treetop nest on the island, with the bulk of another, perhaps two others, also visible. They are adult sized now, and should soon start climbing around in the trees.

A motley crew of Pochards, Tufted Ducks, Black-Headed Gulls and a Cormorant gathered on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan. It's most fortunate that ludicrously exacting health and safety regulations make it impossible to get fallen trees out of the lake, as they make wonderful refuges for all kinds of birds.

The Great Crested Grebe family were out of sight behind the reed bed east of the Lido, but the mother could be seen busily fishing. This picture was taken a fraction of a second before she dived. In that instant she clenched down her feathers, making herself less buoyant, and her shoulders sank beneath the water.

The Coots at the bridge have recovered their nest from the Grey Heron that was using it as a fishing platform.

The Black Swan came charging over for some sunflower hearts.

There is a report of young Peregrines at the bell tower of Imperial College. They may be the offspring of the pair we see -- though now only occasionally -- on the Knightsbridge Barracks. It's not clear whether they have been nesting on the bell tower. It offers an attractive site in the cupola on top of the tower, but you would have thought that the tremendous din of the ten bells, which are rung quite often, would have driven them away.

A Small White butterfly fed on the vervain in the Italian Garden.