Trying to understand Black-Headed Gulls

Black-Headed Gulls, like many birds that feed on the shore, pick up small edible things that are usually almost impossible to identify or even see. Much of this food must be the aquatic larvae of insects.

You often see two Black-Headed Gulls calling to each other in this way. If the interchange develops into them walking side by side, it's courtship. If it ends in a chase, it's rivalry. But sometimes they just stop and stroll away. It seems that the call is an assertion of status for any purpose.

A Little Grebe chick was given a fish under the willow by the bridge.

Cormorants are still finding large carp under the Italian Garden, a place they have been fishing intensively for months. They usually exhaust the supply around midwinter and numbers fall as they go back to the river. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for this picture.

Cormorants on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan contrasted with the Mute Swans which are now all over the Long Water.

The Black Swan now divides his time between the Serpentine and the Long Water. Here he is going under the bridge.

On the far side of the Lido the Egyptian Goose family hurried to the water as a dog approached.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was on the same branch as yesterday, an awkward place for a photograph but it's always good to see her.

Long-Tailed Tit flocks hunted through the trees north of Peter Pan ...

... and along the eastern edge of the greenhouse enclosure, a pleasantly neglected and wild area in the valley of the buried Tyburn Brook.

The male Coal Tit appeared in the Dell for his daily issue of pine nuts ...

... and so did the Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge.

Another picture from Ahmet, a Chiffchaff in the scrubby patch east of the Lido.

Several Migrant Hawker dragonflies were flying around the shore by the Triangle. I caught one male in flight ...

... and another resting on the railings.

A European Drone Fly browsed on a Michaelmas daisy in the Rose Garden.

Common Wasps visited a fatsia bush. The flowers are over, and the little knobs that remain have yet to develop into fruit, but the wasps seem able to harvest some nectar from them in this intermediate state.

Peering through the leaves

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in a difficult place in the plane tree, but it was possible to see her preening ...

... and stretching her wings, surpisingly large for such a small bird.

A Carrion Crow on a stump at Temple Gate clearly considered me an inferior being, though useful as a source of peanuts.

A pair of Magpies waited in the variegated holly tree between the bridge and the Vista, a useful lookout post as it has a lot of dead and leafless branches.

The Robin at the bridge seems to be female, as she sometimes does the wing-fluttering display when she wants a pine nut.

The female Coal Tit in the Dell, whom I indentified in the same way, seems to have learnt that she must stay still for long enough to be photographed before she gets fed.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker on the island ignored five hundred tons of A380 trundling overhead to Heathrow.

This young Lesser Black-Backed Gull must be Pigeon Eater's own offspring, as any other gull would be instantly chased off the roof.

All the posts at the island were taken when another Cormorant arrived, and it got a hostile reception from the occupants. Eventually it found a little stump to stand on.

A Grey Heron sunbathed on the shore ...

... and another was reflected in the stream as it fished in the Dell.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick was at Fisherman's Keep. So was its mother, who was completely ignoring it. The young bird is on its own now and expected to feed itself.

The Little Grebe chicks on the Long Water are fishing for themselves but still getting an occasional contribution from a parent.

Seven Egyptian Geese flew into the Rose Garden ...

... and landed on the Huntress fountain. This is the only source of water at the east end of Hyde Park, and gives them a place to drink without having to fly up to the main lake. The algae in the pool also seem to be palatable.

The local fox was dozing on the lawn under the Henry Moore sculpture.

A very late grebe nest?

There is a new Great Crested Grebes' nest on the Long Water. Even by grebe standards this is very late in the year, and they may not be serious about it. But, living on fish, they are more independent of the seasons than many birds.

The three chicks from the previous Long Water nest were out on the Serpentine with their parents.

One of the three Little Grebe chicks on the Long Water preened under the willow by the bridge.

It already has flight feathers.

Another was being fed.

The Egyptian Geese in the Italian Garden had occupied the Coots' nest again.

Cormorants shone in the sunlight on a fallen tree at the Peter Pan waterfront.

A Black-Headed Gull at Fisherman's Keep ate a bit of mango from a fruit salad that someone had thrown to it. It seemed to enjoy this unusual snack.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out late in the afternoon and peered down over a branch of the plane tree.

The Coal Tit pair in the Dell were chasing each other through the corkscrew hazel. This is the male ...

... and this is the female with a little white patch over her eye.

Ahmet Amerikali found a Goldcrest here ...

... and a Wren by the Buck Hill shelter, where they are often heard but seldom seen.

Migrant Hawker dragonflies mated on a reed by the bridge.

A Common Drone Fly on a strawflower in the Rose Garden had a retinue of tiny bugs.

When I photographed this small wasp on on a Michaelmas daisy I thought it was an Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp, Cerceris rybyensis, but the pattern on its abdomen doesn't match. I can't find any pictures of wasps with this narrow orange stripe on the black and yellow pattern.

A tiny Common Zebra Spider, Salticus scenicus, wandered over a notice at the Lido restaurant.

Fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf

One of the Jays at the Serpentine Gallery waited in a maple whose leaves were entirely withered and dry after the drought. We shall have to wait till next spring to find which trees have been killed and which have just shut down prematurely.

The male Little Owl looked down from the plane tree, whose leaves are in fairly good condition. One of the reasons why these trees are planted all over London is that they are very tough and not upset by adverse weather.

A large flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked its way up the edge of the nursery enclosure. The greenhouses are screened from public view by a band of trees and shrubs which are largely left to go wild, so it's a good place for small birds.

One of the Robins in the Flower Walk struck a grand pose on a branch.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge waited on a clump of withered blackberries.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage looked vigilantly around his territory.

Pigeon Eater, on the Dell restaurant roof, was looking disarranged with a loose feather. He is still in the middle of his moult into winter plumage, which will tidy up the worn feathers on his back and restore him to smartness. Like all birds that need to fly all year round, he moults his flight feathers one at a time on each wing, so he is never grounded as a waterfowl would be.

Some of the Mallard drakes are now back in their breeding plumage, a sign of the advance of autumn.

The Egyptian Geese with three goslings came over to the north side of the Serpentine, far from their usual place at Fisherman's Keep. Perhaps their parents hoped they would find more people to feed them, and fewer dogs to endanger them.

Once arrived in the safe place behind the barrier, they all had a good preen.

The single cygnet on the Long Water was alone again, by the reeds under the Italian Garden.

A party of Coots had taken over the remains of the raft on the Serpentine where the Black Swan and his Mute mate nested. You can see how thoroughly swans trash anywhere they nest, with the hurdle fence that was around the edge torn to bits and the raft starting to sink at one end.

The Great Crested Grebe fed their chicks under the bridge. One chick caught an insect before diving. Of course whenever a parent surfaces with a fish there is a frantic run from all sides to grab it first.

The oldest chick on the Serpentine tried pestering its father, who took absolutely no notice.

Nor did a man in a pedalo, engrossed in his phone. It makes you wonder why people come to the park if all they do is look at their little screens.

The Little Grebe chicks were dispersed around the Long Water. One was fishing under an oak.

A Common Blue butterfly rested on a clump of purslane in the Rose Garden. While there have been plenty of Holly Blues this year, this is the first Common Blue I've seen.

A Common Wasp was busy on a cuphea flower. I've seen wasps on these flowers before, and wondered what they were doing. They can't get into the long narrow flowers, which a bee would pierce with its sharp proboscis to get at the nectar, but wasps don't have one. Can a wasp chew its way in?