Hybrid cygnet, and news of the Little Owls

Just as everyone had given up hope, the Mute Swan 4GIQ has hatched  a hybrid cygnet. She was turning the remaining eggs and clearly considered that there may be more on the way.

The father was celebrating in his own way by throwing sticks about.

Shortly after I took these pictures, thunder and a drenching downpour brought the hot spell to an end.

There are a lot of geese as Greylags and Canadas come in to moult their flight feathers in the relative safety of the lake. The rain had cleared the park of people and dogs, and a flock of Canadas took the opportunity to have a good feed on the grass.

The one and only Canada family were at Peter Pan.

The Mandarin family, not seen yesterday, were at the Vista defying a harmless Moorhen that happened to be passing. The ducklings are just as fierce as their mother, and I have seen one of them routing a Coot.

The other main item of news is that there is definitely a pair of Little Owls at the Serpentine Gallery. We've been mainly seeing a male here, and he is shown in yesterday's blog. Over past days I have seen an owl that I thought was female, but I wasn't sure, as males can fluff themselves up and contract their eyebrows and unless you get a really good look you can't be sure. But today I saw two owls fly from one of the old chestnut trees to another and got a picture of an owl that is certainly female looking down gravely from a branch. She went into a hole in the hollow tree, and it seems quite likely that they pair are nesting here, in the tree farther from the gallery, not in the tree with a leaning trunk where the male was raised last year.

A Great Tit brought half a pine nut to a fledgling at the southwest corner of the bridge. He had eaten half of it himself. The young one got plenty, though, as the father came back several times for pine nuts.

A Wren at the northwest corner of the bridge had caught a caddis fly.

A Robin looked out from a branch as one of the innumerable midges flew past.

David Element sent a fine picture of one of the Grey Wagtails, which had caught a damselfly and was about to eat it on a post at the bridge.

The familiar male Pied Wagtail perched on a barrier at the Dell restaurant.

A young Blackbird foraged under the bushes at Mount Gate. There were two here.

We've been having a lot of videos of the Song Thrush singing in the leaf yard, but if it sings like that in full view a few feet away how can anyone resist filming it?

Feral Pigeons relaxed and preened in wood chips in the Flower Walk.

A rain-soaked Carrion Crow perched on the ornamental crown on top of a gas lamp post.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker called from the top of a weeping willow at Fisherman's Keep, not a place where you'd expect to see one. It soon flew away.

The solitary tatty Black-Headed Gull was looking bedraggled after the rain. Gulls don't usually get so wet, and it looks as if its preen gland isn't providing enough oil to keep its feathers in good condition.

More Whitethroats

Two Whitethroats were singing on the east side of the Long Water, though I only got a picture of one of them.

There was a young Blackbird digging in the Flower Walk ...

... and another at Mount Gate.

A young Great Tit by the bridge was already poking at bark looking for insects.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was more visible than usual in his lime tree.

On the ground below a Jay demanded a peanut.

A young Magpie by the bridge begged a parent to feed it.

A Wren loudly scolded them from the next tree, a red-leafed cherry.

The three Grey Heron chicks in the nest at the east end of the island were jumping around and clacking.

A heron was chased up the Long Water by a Lesser Black-Backed Gull.

There were more Feral Pigeons than usual on the shore by the Dell restaurant, and Pigeon Eater was eyeing them looking for his chance.

The Coot nest on the baskets at the Triangle now seems to be well established. It's too public but not an altogether bad place, as it's well away from the shore and the edge of the basket offers some protection from swooping gulls.

The five Mute cygnets were with their mother near the boat hire platform. They're growing fast now.

The Pochard on the Long Water still has three ducklings, and they were all resting under a poplar at the Vista.

I couldn't find the Mandarin, but they spend more time ashore than other ducks and are often hidden in the bushes.

A fox looked out through the oxeye daisies near the Vista.

David Element got a splendid picture of a Red-Veined Darter dragonfly at the Round Pond, one of eight males here.

An Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp, Cerceris rybyensis, drank nectar on an oxeye daisy across the Long Water from Peter Pan. These solitary wasps are fierce little creatures and kill bees to feed their grubs, though as with all wasps the adults have an entirely liquid diet.

A Common Carder Bee fed on stachys flowers in the Rose Garden. They are much less aggressive than the Wool Carders and coexist peacefully with the numerous Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.

More Grey Heron chicks

The fourth Grey Heron nest on the Serpentine island has just produced three chicks. A parent fetched a twig to build up the nest.

A closer look shows all three chicks.

A heron flew up the Serpentine to fish on the edge of the Long Water.

The Great Crested Grebes' nest halfway along the island was empty, probably predated by a heron walking along the edge. The nest on the chain is still all right. The water here is too deep for herons, but the open site is exposed to the Herring Gulls. There are no safe places.

The Coots at the Dell restuarnt have brought their two chicks out on the water, but were sensibly staying under the balcony.

The Coots on the swan nesting raft looked at poor 4GIQ, who will be stuck on her infertile eggs for some time before she gives up. They weren't sympathetic, they wanted her and her violent mate to go away and leave them in peace so they could make a new nest.

The Black Swan was some distance away preening on the shore, but he had relieved her on the nest earlier.

The Egyptian Geese by the island were down to eight goslings, but this is still a fair number and they are only losing them slowly, so they have a chance of getting some through.

The Mandarin at the Vista was ashore with her two ducklings, which she guards ferociously.

The Gadwalls in the Huntress fountain were eating the thick growth of algae brought on by the hot weather.

The Song Thrush on the edge of the leaf yard, which has been silent during the hot days, was clearly pleased by the drop in temperature and sang cheerfully in an acacia.

The bushes are loud with hungry Great Tit fledglings. This one looked hopefully round a twig while I was providing its parents with pine nuts.

A Wren near the Buck Hill shelter was making a loud fuss. There are always Magpies to shout at.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down sleepily from his lime tree.

A female Black-Tailed Skimer dragonfly was living up to her name, skimming along the edge of the Serpentine and constantly dipping to deposit eggs in the shallow water.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on knapweed at the back of the Lido.

Tom was at Rainham Marshes, where he got a fine picture of a female Cuckoo, one of several there at the moment. They come in different shades of grey and brown and this morph is called 'hepatic', though it doesn't look liver-coloured to me.

More Mandarin ducklings

A Mandarin has brought out six ducklings on the Round Pond. It's a slightly less dangerous place than the main lake as there are fewer big gulls, and last year a Mandarin -- possibly the same one -- managed to raise three young.

But there are still gulls. Three Herring Gulls stood uncomfortably close to a Coot which had foolishly nested on the gravel strip.

I don't think the eggs that the Mute Swan 4GIQ is sitting on are going to hatch now. Jenna suggests that they got overheated. I think it also likely that genetic incompatibility was a reason -- we know that hybrids do hatch, but we don't know how often. I think that on the day when the swans were excited one egg did hatch and the cygnet died, and that the rest are infertile. But who knows? 

Again, a pair of Great Crested Grebes were eyeing the basket enviously, the female so intent that she forgot to snap up some Common Blue Damselflies hovering next to her. If 4GIQ gives up and abandons the nest, they would have a chance to build on a place where the wickerwork fence wrecked by the swans is trailing in the water -- but that's a big if. They can't go on to the Long Water as they are constantly threatened by grebes which have territory there, and in fact there had just been a dispute by the bridge.

A Carrion Crow ate half-melted ice cream at the Vista ...

... and a Jay more conventionally perched on the railings to demand a peanut.

The old male Chaffinch was also waiting in the bushes.

A Wren protested at a Magpie in the clump of alders near the Italian Garden.

Ahmet Amerikali found a Reed Warbler east of the Lido ...

... and also a Cetti's Warbler, not here but in Battersea Park. It's not surprising that these increasingly common birds are there too.

An Emperor dragonfly hunted midges in the shadows under the bridge ...

... and a pair of Black-Tailed Skimmers mated on the shore.

Red-Eyed Damselflies flew over the algae in the Italian Garden. 

I saw three Red-Veined Darters flying over the Long Water but didn't get a picture. So I went to the Round Pond where you usually find more, but didn't see any. However, there was a little Garden Grass Veneer Moth, Chrysoteuchia culmella, on a seed head.

A Painted Lady butterfly fed on the stachys in the Rose Garden ...

... and a Small Tortoiseshell, almost unrecognisable with its wings folded, perched on a pink rose.

A Wool Carder Bee stayed still for long enough to get a reasonable picture.

The tall purple spikes of Woodland Sage, Salvia nemorosa, were thronged with Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.