News of another Little owlet

There are two Little owlets at the Serpentine Gallery. Hao Zhang saw them together. I got a picture of one of them in the sweet chestnut tree ...

... and later their mother in the distant lime tree where the parents are staying during the daytime.

There was a family of Song Thrushes behind the Queen's Temple. This is one of the young ones.

An adult by the Speke obelisk was carrying an unidentified and gruesome object.

A Pied Wagtail ...

... and a Grey Wagtail were hunting insects on the debris blown into the corner of the lake by the Dell restaurant.

The three young Grey Herons in the nest at the east end of the Serpentine island were exercising their wings in preparation for their first flight.

The Great Crested Grebe at the island sat peacefully on her nest. She didn't get up, so I couldn't see whether she has laid another egg.

The Coots in the fountain pool in the Italian Garden were feeding their three chicks on the nest.

The Mute Swan 4GIQ's original mate came over to help look after the hybrid cygnet. He doesn't seem to mind that it isn't his, and the Black Swan is not taking much notice of them. I was told that he used to have the plastic ring 4FUM, but the glue failed and it fell off, so now he has only a metal ring.

The Pochard and her duckling came over to the Vista ...

... where a female Gadwall was having a brisk wash ...

... and flap.

A Comma butterfly perched in hypericum blossom at Mount Gate.

There was nothing unusual in the Rose Garden, but hordes of Buff-Tailed Bumblebees are still busy on the patches of stachys.

Ahmet Amerikali was at Rainham Marshes, where he got pictures of an Avocet ...

... and a female Linnet ...

... and the famous Cuckoo almost got away from him.

Another sight of a Little owlet

A Little owlet could be seen in one of the chestnut trees at the Serpentine Gallery, only the second time I've seen it and we still don't know whether there is more than one.

The father was keeping well away in a lime tree.

On the ground below two pairs of Carrion Crows had a brief brawl and the winning pair sent the losers off the premises.

A young Robin came out on the railings in the Flower Walk.

On a hot afternoon the Starlings at the Lido restuarant were keeping cool in the shade of the tables.

A Grey Wagtail perched on a post at Peter Pan. In the bottom left corner you can see what may be the nymph of a Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly crawling up from the water.

There are a lot of adults around the posts here.

The Grey Heron chicks in the fifth nest on the island, high in a treetop, are noisy but almost impossible to see. I got a brief glimpse of one, and there may be another showing indistinctly to the right of it.

The two Coot chicks at the Dell restaurant were out in the open with their parents ...

... directly below Pigeon Eater on the roof. He seems to have lost interest after eating one of them. After all, he can have a big Feral Pigeon whenever he likes.

The Mute Swans at the east end of the lake are down to four cygnets. Perhaps it would be unfair to blame the Black Swan for the loss, but they have been coming into his territory recently, and have now stopped doing it. The cygnets were busy upending to gather algae.

The Black Swan was on the raft with the unstoppable Coot. Both were looking hot and uncomfortable.

The hybrid cygnet was with its Mute mother 4GIQ near the bridge.

The spiky mauve flowers of eyngium are always popular with Honeybees. These flowers in the Rose Garden are a miniature variety, they aren't giant bees.

A still picture of the scene was photobombed by an Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp.

The Buff-Tailed Bumblebees were staying with their preferred rugosa roses.

Grebes nesting again

A female Blackcap came out on a bramble beside the Long Water. The sound of young ones begging could be heard behind her.

Several Chiffchaffs are still singing. Here is one in a treetop in the leaf yard.

A family of Greenfinches twittered high in a tree beside the Long Water. There were five, and I just managed to get three of them into one indifferent picture.

Young Carrion Crows were making a tremendous racket by the bridge.

The female Robin at Mount Gate came out for her daily ration of pine nuts.

The male Little Owl was in a lime tree at at discreet distance from the chestnuts where the owlet has been seen and heard, though I didn't get any sign of this today.

The three Grey Heron chicks were neatly grouped in the nest at the east end of the island.

The heron in the Italian Garden spends almost all of its time at the southeast pool. This has a particularly dense growth of algae, and it seems to prefer looking into the gaps and grabbing fish as they cross the small open space.

The Great Crested Grebes who nested halfway along the Serpentine island lost their first nest in unexplained circumstances -- it was probably predated. Now they are trying again in the same place, and already have one egg which the female was admiring.

They are having a proper go at it, building up the nest and mating.

The Coots nesting to the south of Peter Pan managed to bring up one chick, which is now able to look after itself, and have started again.

The two chicks under the Dell restaurant balcony rested in the nest while one parent had a wash.

The Mute Swan 4GIQ was guarding her hybrid cygnet near the bridge.

One of the Canada Geese that returns every year to moult is this one with a speckled head. It isn't a hybrid, just a Canada with an odd pattern.

One of the Red Crested Pochard drakes on the Long Water is already going into eclipse.

A Gadwall drake preened his quiet grey plumage on a post at the Vista.

A male Emperor dragonfly hunted over the Long Water under the Italian Garden.

A Cellophane Bee on a Shasta daisy in the Rose Garden was so covered in pollen that it must have had difficulty seeing its way home.

Tatty Robin

I hadn't seen the female Robin at Mount Gate for some time. Today she turned up looking very tatty from nesting. I only saw a young Robin here once, scuttling into a bush too fast for a photograph.

A female Great Tit by the Dell was looking exasperated as several fledglings begged at her.

A young Carrion Crow near the Serpentine Gallery pestered its parents for a share of their peanuts, and got fed twice.

Another crow sunbathed in a lime tree.

A pair of Magpies perched amicably side by side near the Vista.

The male Little Owl at the gallery was in an awkward place and I couldn't get much of a picture.

I also heard the owlet calling from the other chestnut tree, but couldn't see it despite checking the tree from all angles. The sound was faint, and probably it was inside the hollow trunk.

Theodore found a Peregrine on the bell tower of Imperial College. It could be the female from the Knightsbridge barracks just 500 yards away. It certainly isn't the male, as he is quite dark and dingy-looking.

A Grey Heron fishing in the Italian Garden stood by a patch of wild vervain that has come up around the ponds. No doubt the gardeners will be sent to pull the plants up, but in fact it's prettier than its cultivated relative Verbena bonariensis which is put deliberately in the park flower beds.

 

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull had won a chunk of stale bread too large to swallow, but was being harassed by Egyptian Geese while trying to find a safe place to put it down and peck at it.

The seven Egyptian goslings by the small boathouses are growing fast and are now out of danger from being snatched by gulls.

It's clear that when they are moulting their flight feathers geese feel itchy and cross. Greylags on the Serpentine were rushing about and diving to relieve the irritation.

The young Mandarins and their mother, on the path at the Triangle, prevent a Coot from coming ashore. It's one of the ducklings, not the mother, that sends it off -- I've seen them dismissing Coots before.

The Pochard and her duckling at the Vista are very partial to sunflower hearts, and are now coming over whenever I pass by.

A female Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly perched on a clump of small pink roses in the Rose Garden.

A Comma butterfly rested on the railings at Mount Gate in front of a hypericum bush.

A patch of Meadow Cranesbill east of the Lido is popular with Honeybees.

A Zebra Spider climbed the railings of the Dell.

Hemlock Water Dropwort, reputed to be the most poisonous plant in Britain, is flourishing on the waterfront at Peter Pan. If you mistake it for flat-leafed parsley you face two hours of agony as all your muscles go into spasm till you suffocate.