Waiting for news of the swans

There was a great deal of attention to the eggs at the Black Swan and his Mute mate 4GIQ's nest, but I couldn't see whether any had hatched. They can tell when hatching is imminent by the sound of the cygnets stirring inside the egg. If anyone has further news, please email it to the address on the blog. If, better still, you have a picture, please send the original at full size without allowing the email program to degrade it.

Otherwise life went on as usual. The Canada Geese with three goslings browsed peacefully on the grass at the east side of the Lido.

It was a bit cooler, but an Egyptian at the boathouses stll needed to shade the goslings from the sun.

The pair with two goslings were at the east end of the lake. The young ones are now too large to be snatched by Pigeon Eater or any large gull, and Pigeon Eater himself has been visiting the area less often as there are fewer Feral Pigeons on the edge. He can hunt more profitably elsewhere, as the pigeons are less aware of the danger he presents.

The Great Crested Grebes halfway along the island were changing places on the nest. This is a slightly longer video than usual, as it takes a while for them to swap places, turn the eggs over to keep them evenly warmed, and settle down. Shifts are about half an hour, giving the unoccupied grebe plenty of time to catch a fish.

A Coot dived at the edge of the Serpentine to feed on algae and any small edible water creature it might find.

A Grey Heron standing over a foot above the water reached down to have a drink. They can also fish most effectively from this height thanks to a long neck and perfect balance.

Another on the Long Water enjoyed a scratch on a dead tree.

A Blackbird sang in the leaf yard ...

... and a Blackcap sang by Mount Gate.

A young Blue Tit by the bridge flutttered to encourage its parents to feed it ...

... and the insistent tatty adult in the Rose Garden pestered me for a pine nut.

A young Starling at the Lido restaurant appealed to a parent.

A Jay in a hawthorn near the Queen's Temple wanted a peanut.

The Little Owl in the lime tree at the Serpentine Gallery was more visible than in the last few days.

A Painted Lady butterfly in the Rose Garden fed on a wallflower ..

... and so did a Common Carder Bee.

Later: I went back at 7.30 pm to see if anything had happened with the swans, but it was all quiet.

The Black Swan menaced a passing Egyptian family.

Swan eggs about to hatch?

The female Mute Swan 4GIQ and her Black mate were on the raft together, both very interested in the eggs. It looks as if these are about to hatch.

The five Mute cygnets were at the east end of the Serpentine with their mother.

The Canada family crossed the lake by the bridge.

The Egyptian Geese by the boathouses still have nine goslings, which were straggling along the edge. They are not as strongly imprinted on their mother as with big geese, and are constantly wandering off and having to be called back.

The Gadwall x Mallard hybrid drake was trotting along the path between the Vista and the bridge. He may have been chased ashore by an aggressive Mallard drake at the Vista. Later: Or not a hybrid? See Marianne's comment below.

The Gadwall pair we saw yesterday in the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden were preening on the edge of the pool.

A Coot in the Italian Garden carried a water lily leaf to a nest in a clump of irises.

The Coot nesting in the silly place on the south shore of the Serpentine is stubbornly sticking to its nest.

The Great Crested Grebes on the chain at the east end of the island were both at the nest. The male was sitting, and stretched his wings.

Above them, the sitting Grey Heron got up to stretch.

A Great Tit fed a fledgling at the southwest corner of the bridge.

At the other end of the bridge a young Blue Tit waited to be fed.

A Wren appeared beside the path near the Italian Garden.

Starlings stayed in the shade under the tables at the Lido restaurant.

A Carrion Crow panted in the heat by Temple Gate.

The Wool Carder Bees in the stachys in the Italian Garden were incessantly chasing the Buff-Tailed Bumblebees, not giving them a moment's rest. One stayed on a leaf for just long enough to be photographed.

It's not all that bad for the Buff-Tails, as the Wool Carders are found in quite a small area.

A male Common Blue Damselfly perched on a salvia flower east of the Lido.

These caterpillars hanging from a silk thread in the bushes at the southwest corner of the bridge seem to be those of the Spindle Ermine moth, which has the daunting scientific name of Yponomeuta cagnagella.

Grebes wanting to nest

The Great Crested Grebes nesting on the chain at the island were building up their insecure nest, which is constantly sinking and slumping off the chain, and were turning over the eggs. It's not certain when they started incubating, but there's a good chance that hatching will come soon.

Before they covered the nest with weed you could see three eggs.

A pair by the nesting basket at the Triangle were eyeing it enviously ...

... and waving strands of algae at each other, and would clearly have liked to nest on it. But they simply don't have the necessary skill to build here, quite apart from the prospect of trouble from the aggressive Black Swan ...

... who was at the edge, taking no notice of his Mute mate 4GIQ, who was looking uncomfortable in the heat, panting and taking frequent drinks ...

... and shifting about restlessly. There is no sign yet of the eggs hatching.

On the shore nearby, the silliest of the Coots was bringing weed to its idiotically sited nest.

The Egyptian Geese by the boathouses still have nine of their original eleven goslings, and were looking after them as they fed in the shade of a plane tree.

The Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden provides a place for Feral Pigeons to drink, but is also inhabited by a pair of Egyptian Geese, and Gadwalls are frequent visitors. 

There was a patch of what looked like duck feathers, including some brown-tipped ones that might have been from a Gadwall drake's secondaries. But the Gadwalls here looked completely unruffled. The quantity of feathers suggested a Sparrowhawk kill, but a Gadwall is surely too large for a Sparrowhawk to attack. I don't know what to make of this.

There are still fish to be caught in the very overfished area under the edge of the Italian Garden, and Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of a heron with a small carp. The thick algae here make its task easier, as fish lurk under them.

A Jackdaw cooled off with a drink on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan.

A Great Tit in the Dell was panting in the heat and looking nervously upwards, probably at a Magpie. I also heard the Coal Tits in this yew tree, but they didn't come into sight.

There is a tribe of black and white Feral Pigeons in park, ranging from white with black tails through white with dark marks on the back to half-and-half birds like this one.

Dragonflies are beginning to appear. I saw a distant Black-Tailed Skimmer flying over the Long Water several days ago, and today there was this fine female on a stem in the Rose Garden.

David Element reports that Lesser Emperors and Red-Veined Darters have been seen elsewhere, so it's time to start looking for them here, probably at the bridge and by the Round Pond respectively.

A faded Holly Blue butterfly perched on a leaf by Temple Gate. Usually the underside is a delicate pale blue, but this one was hardly blue at all.

Great Black-Backed Gulls and Pochard ducklings

Great Black-Backed Gulls are only occasional visitors to the park, so it was pleasing to see two on the posts at Peter Pan. They are the largest of all gulls, with a wingspan up to 5 ft 6 in (1.7 m). The video begin with a clip showing a Lesser Black-Back passing in front of them to show the difference in size.

Every year these Coots nest on the posts at Peter Pan, and every time they hatch any chicks these are promptly eaten by the Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-Backs. They simply start again. It hasn't occurred to them that they might go somewhere safer.

This is the most stupidly sited of all the Coot nests, at the edge of the narrow path by the Triangle, and it's also the most imcompetently built, but the stubborn Coots have been sticking to it for over a week.

The Great Crested Grebe nesting halfway along the island was dozing comfortably in the shade of an elder bush. The nest on the chain at the end of the island is still going, and is likely to hatch first.

A Common Pochard has  brought out eight ducklings at the north end of the Long Water. Luckily they were a good distance from the Great Black-Backed Gulls and well hidden by the waterside bushes.

The Canada Geese with three goslings relaxed on the edge of the Serpentine, not seeking shelter from the hot sunlight. This is the only pair of big geese to breed in the park this year: the others have given up because of the danger from Herring Gulls, foxes and dogs. Thanks to their choosing the swan nesting island on the Long Water and to their excellent parenting skills they have got these goslings through, but they still lost two.

The Black Swan was sitting on the eggs on the nesting raft, an unusual thing for a male swan but perhaps Black ones are different. His Mute Mate 4GIQ was beside him, and the obstinate Coot was holding its ground. The eggs are due to hatch any day now.

The pair on the Long Water, 4HDW and 4DTT, were staying in the shade under a bush by the Vista.

The Egyptians by the boathouses still have at least eight of their original eleven young. Most of them were sheltering under their mother. The one that had wandered off was in no danger from a harmless Moorhen.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good picture of a Reed Warbler on the east side of the Long Water, opposite the reeds where the pair are nesting. It may or may not be one from that side. We have a lot of Reed Warblers this year.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery stuck to his recent habit of not coming out in the lime tree till the late afternoon. As usual he was in a very awkward place for a photograph. If he went to the old chestnut where his hole is  he would be a lot easier to see, as most of its leaves form a canopy on the outside of the tree and you can look up from underneath.

A Carrion Crow had won a slice of salami, and took it to the fallen poplar at Peter Pan to dunk it in the water.

It was too hot for small birds to come out of the shade. Even the female Robin at Mount Gate stayed under a leaf while waiting for her pine nuts.

But the heat suited insects. A Small Copper butterfly, Lycaena phleas, fed on an oxeye daisy near Mount Gate.

A Brimstone clung to a salvia spike east of the Lido.

I've been checking the stachys in the Rose Garden for a Wool Carder bee, Anthidium manicatum, as we had some here last year. Sure enough, there were several today. They are easy to spot as they are very aggressive, chasing the larger bumblebees.

Common Blue Damselflies are seen everywhere, the vast majority of them male. This one was on a head of pendulous sedge east of the Lido.

There are also a few Blue-Tailed Damselflies, and one could be seen on a reed at the southwest corner of the bridge.