Hungry little birds

The colder weather and the autumn fall in the insect population have made the Great Tits, Blue Tits and Robins in the Flower Walk hungrier and they are storming out of the bushes for pine nuts.

Two Robins here are able to get quite close together without attacking each other. The first, quite worn from rearing young, is likely to be a female ...

... but the second is so fresh and immaculate that it may not be her mate, but rather her offspring hatched early in the year and now completely adult in appearance.

The Great Tits and Coal Tits that regularly come to be fed in the Dell have been joined by a pair of Blue Tits.

Rose hips ripening in the Rose Garden made a background for a Great Tit waiting for a pine nut. 

It was the turn of the female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery to occupy the corner of the plane tree. Outside the breeding season they always seem to stay apart in different trees.

A young Wood Pigeon at the top of the Dell waterfall still hadn't grown an adult white collar, but its dark eyes were beginning to lighten, showing the dark spot on the lower front corner of the iris which makes them look as if they had oval pupils.

A young Pied Wagtail hunted in the slime on the edge at the Dell restaurant ...

... through which Pigeon Eater had come ashore, leaving green flecks on his legs.

The Grey Heron at the Triangle is getting very assertive and will perch on the back of the bench even when people are sitting there.

The two Great Crested Grebe chicks from the island came in close to the south shore to be fed. Hungry as they are, they are surprising clumsy at taking fish from their parents and several tries are usually needed.

The single chick which was chased away yesterday was back, as demanding as ever. It's now almost adult size.

The Little Grebe chicks are also growing fast.

A group of Mute Swans can generally be found on the edge of the Serpentine at the Triangle socialising and preening. They are the lower ranking birds on the lake and don't need to parade around asserting their status.

The Black Swan was showing off and had come on to the Long Water, here seen from the bridge. Later he was back on the Serpentine, probably after being chased off by 4HDW.

The four Egyptian goslings which had been wandering dangerously yesterday were now back with their parents.

The grass is growing back after the drought. Two Egyptians at the Dell had found a tasty patch.

Only a few insects were out in the Rose Garden border, mostly Common Carder bees which have been unusually numerous this year. A European Drone Fly browsed on an aster.

Migrant Hawker dragonfly

The Little Grebe family had returned to the reeds on the east side of the Long Water.

The three newest Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Long Water are now large enough to come out from the shelter of the poplar tree on to the open water.

The single chick on the Serpentine was begging so insistently that even its loving mother lost patience and gave it the push.

The teenage grebe was resting on the swan nesting raft again. It was content to share it with the Mute Swan 4GIX, but when 4FUF climbed aboard as well that was too much, and it left hastily.

One of the cygnets on the Serpentine was preening a wing. It doesn't have any flight feathers yet. Swans' wings develop very late in their growth.

Two of the four Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep had wandered off and were begging for crumbs from the passers by. They ignored their mother calling them back, and in the end she had to come and round them up.

The teenage Mandarin was also begging at the Vista, and people were making quite a fuss of him.

A young Grey Wagtail was hunting along the edge of the Lido restaurant terrace.

A Starling whistled and nattered on a chair while waiting for a chance to raid a table.

There was a Wood Pigeon in an olive tree at the end of the terrace. It does have some olives, but they look too hard and unripe even for a Wood Pigeon to eat.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in the big plane tree.

The Jay family were here too. One of the young ones followed me to the Albert Memorial.

The familiar Robin was waiting on the railings in the Flower Walk.

A Blue Tit searched for insects on a branch at the northwest corner of the bridge.

As usual, the Great Tits in the corkscrew hazel in the Dell ...

... were followed by the Coal Tits. This is the female of the pair, with little white flecks above her eyes.

A male Migrant Hawker dragonfly rested on a grass seed head by the Italian Garden. It's the first I've seen here this year.

There are still some Willow Emerald damselflies. These were on the railings at the southeast corner of the bridge.

Grebe out of the water

The Little Grebes on the Long Water were catching small fish at a prodigious rate to feed their four chicks.

A Great Crested Grebe farther up the lake caught a pike.

It was politely offered to a chick but was obviously too large, so the parent ate it.

The number of pike on the lake is certainly going up, and they are now often seen among the prey of the grebes and Cormorants. Ahmet Amerikali took this picture yesterday.

On the posts at the bridge a Cormorant vainly tried to dry its wings during a shower.

The single grebe chick on the Serpentine stretched its wings. The flight feathers are just beginning to come out.

You seldom see a Great Crested Grebe out of the water, but the teenager on the Serpentine had climbed on to the swans' nesting raft to preen.

The young Mandarin drake was preening at the Vista.

A odd combination on the fallen poplar at the Vista: a Cormorant, a Pochard, a Tufted Duck, a young Grey Wagtail and a Yellow-Bellied Slider terrapin.

The first Shovellers have returned. Three could be seen on the Long Water.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was out in the big plane tree.

Rain softened the hard ground enough for the Starlings to hunt for wireworms.

When the Great Tits come out in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Dell ...

... the Coal Tits notice and turn up to take pine nuts from the railings.

A Blue Tit waited in the Flower Walk.

Three more pictures from Ahmet: a Willow Warbler ...

... and a young Chiffchaff both in the scrub at the east end of the Lido ...

... and a Goldcrest in a holly tree at the southwest corner of the bridge.

Missing a moth

There were no surprises today, but everything seemed to be going well. The male Little Owl at the Serpentine reappeared in the big plane tree after his absence in yesterday's rain.

A Jay waited for a peanut on the railings by the bridge.

A young Pied Wagtail hunted insects in the debris at the edge of the Serpentine.

A Cormorant preened and flapped on what looks like a very uncomfortable perch on the edge of a piece of wire mesh, but it seemed not to mind.

The four Little Grebe chicks were in the middle of the Long Water waiting for their parents to turn up with fish. They are remarkably loud for such small birds and can be heard a hundred yards away.

The three Great Crested Grebe chicks were under the poplar with their mother. They're still too young to move far from the nest.

The two chicks on the Serpentine were at Fisherman's Keep.

The single oldest chick was also here, but no one has seen the family from the nest of the island. Sato wondered whether they had moved to the Long Water, but I think that these chicks would be larger than the Long Water ones.

The teenage grebe was by the swan nesting raft at the Triangle, where it has been seen several times before, probably looking for fish in the shadow of the raft.

The raft had its usual crew of the Mute Swan 4GIX, a pair of Moorhens and a Coot.

The two cygnets were at the Dell restaurant, looking bright and active with no sign that one of them had been ill.

The single cygnet on the Long Water was begging by itself at the Vista ...

... where there was also a Mandarin teenager, clearly a drake as its bill is already pink. It seems likely that this is one hatched on the Long Water rather than one of the Round Pond eleven, as there was no sign of any others.

A Hummingbird Hawk Moth was flying around the herbaceous borders in the Rose Garden, but it wouldn't stop for an instant and I didn't get a picture of it. I had to be content with a very ordinary Batman Hoverfly on a strawflower.

A spear thistle by the Italian Garden attracted a Common Drone Fly ...

... and a Common Carder bee, of which there are a great many at the moment.

The dwarf pomegranate bushes in the giant flower pots at the Lido restaurant are fruiting well.

Just up the path to the east there has been an outburst of exoticism, with a persimmon ...

... and a grapefruit. There's no chance of them ripening in the English climate.