The joy of chocolate cake

A hot Saturday with a loud pop concert in the park is not a good time for seeing birds, but at least the male Little Owl came out in the lime tree in the afternoon.

A Carrion Crow had won a bit of chocolate cake from the café by the Italian Garden. It was with its family, but didn't offer to share it.

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull near the Dell restaurant, smaller and darker than a Herring Gull. They have started breeding in the town now so we shall be seeing more of them soon, though they will have a lot of catching up to do with the alarmingly successful Herring Gull colony in Paddington.

The Grey Heron at the Italian Garden, fishing under the marble fountain, shook out its feathers. This is just a momentary comfort movement. The heron hasn't discovered the fishing method of the African Black Heron, which brings its open wings forward over its head to create a sunshade, luring fish into what they think are safe shadows.

The male Great Crested Grebe at the island was sitting comfortably on the newly rebuilt nest. Perhaps his mate has already started laying eggs. Grebes start sitting as soon as the first egg is laid, so the chick hatch over several days. This doesn't matter, as they can be fed on the nest by the grebe that is taking its turn on the water.

The pair that tried to nest on a dead tree on the Long Water were evicted by Coots and haven't found another site yet.

The Coot nesting on the raft at the Triangle was in that odd position again, standing over the eggs with wings lowered. Maybe it thinks they're getting overheated and need shading.

A Moorhen cooled off under the spray from the marble fountain.

The new boss Mute Swan 4HDW's mate 4DTT brought her two cygnets to the Vista to do a bit of begging.

The other mother 4DVT was by the Diana fountain landing stage, taking her three cygnets quite close to the Black Swan. He didn't react. He has lost his mojo since the cygnet died ...

... but not his appetite.  When he saw me he hurried over for some sunflower hearts.

A teenage Egyptian Goose kept cool with a splashy wash in the Serpentine. A final flap showed well developed flight feathers.

The six teenagers by the boathouse were resting on the shore with their parents.

A female Emperor dragonfly laid eggs on the algae under the Italian Garden.

A male was sparring with a Brown Hawker. This isn't a good picture, but I was pleased to get anything as Brown Hawkers are almost impossible to photograph, dashing around non-stop.

It's not just dragonflies that find the railing spikes a perfect place to perch. A Greenbottle fly was sunning itself on one near Peter Pan.

The sea lavender in the Rose Garden attracted a Small White butterfly ...

... and a tattered old Painted Lady.

The widowed swan gets her cygnets after all

This Mute Swan is 4DTT, the widow of the notorious boss swan 4DTH who died earlier this year. She has found a new mate, 4HDW, who is now the new boss of the Long Water, and has just hatched two cygnets. She was taking them past the Peter Pan waterfront, hoping to find someone feeding the birds.

The other mother, 4DVT, was at the Serpentine island with her three.

So was the Tufted Duck from the Long Water, now with only two ducklings.

A Mandarin at the Round Pond has just produced eleven ducklings. This is the third brood of Mandarins on the pond this year, and there are also two young Mandarins, now teenagers, on the lake. Of course casualties are heavy, but it really seems that Mandarin are now an established breeding species in the park.

The mother of the teenagers was at the Vista. The female teenager now has exactly the same plumage as hers, but she has the long wings of a full adult.

The male Great Crested Grebe at the island was resting in front of the completed nest, so there aren't any eggs yet.

The nest at the Dell restaurant has been firmly established and probably with eggs at least since 22 June. The gestation time for a Great Crested Grebe is 27 to 29 days, so we may see chicks in nine or ten days.

I never thought the Coot chicks would realise that the duckboards are a way of getting in and out of the Italian Garden fountains, but the five in the northeast pool have got the idea.

The ponds are teeming with young carp three or four inches long ...

... but the local Cormorant ...

... and Grey Heron are going for bigger fish.

The heron also caught a female Emperor dragonfly which had carelessly strayed too close. Thanks to Ahmet Amerikali for the last three pictures.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen lurking in a lime tree, but the others were lurking more effectively and I couldn't find them.

The Peregrines were both on the barracks tower. The male is on the right of this picture.

A Jay waited for a peanut in the Flower Walk. Most of the small birds were sheltering in the bushes and I only saw a few Great Tits.

A Marmalade Fly, Episyrphus balteatus, browsed on an agapanthus in the Dell.

Female Common Blue Damselflies can be various colours, green, grey and beige, but also blue like the males. But these two pictures of the same pair mating at Peter Pan show that she is only blue on the upper surface of her abdomen. She also has brown eyes.

Sheltering in the leaves

On a very hot day most of the small birds were sheltering in the bushes, but a Blue Tit came out in the Flower Walk to take a pine nut.

The young Robin at Mount Gate was the only member of the family to appear. They can find water at the Bulgarian drinking fountain a few yards away, which conveniently has a blocked drain so that a puddle forms under it where they can bathe.

A young Blackbird foraged in the bushes in the Flower Walk, beside what looks like the discarded egg of a larger bird. There is a bird bath in the Flower Walk which is regularly filled, and a drinking fountain for dogs with a convenient basin at ground level.

A Jay perched in the shade of the leaves before flying out to grab a peanut from my fingers. I'm sure they enjoy this demonstration of flying skill.

The female Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery was in a skittish mood, and flew round to the other side of the plane tree as soon as I saw her. I followed and got a hasty shot before she fled into the chestnut tree and disappeared.

Julia sent two excellent videos. Swifts whizzed around a nest, maybe several, in gaps in the brickwork of an old house.

Two young Robins visited a gravestone in Fulham Cemetery.

The was a clattering of Grey Heron chicks begging in the fifth nest on the island, high in a treetop and almost impossible to see from the shore. I got a very sketchy picture of parts of two of them, and that's all we're going to see till they start climbing out.

The Great Crested Grebes at the island have made a sudden and unexpected effort and built a nest which is just good enough to mate on, but you don't expect fancy nests from these birds.  This is their third try this year, so let's hope they finally succeed.

At the east end of the island rivals were having a confrontation. One gave way and turned to leave, and was chased off.

There were two pairs of Coots with single chicks at Peter Pan, both from second nests, so it does seem true that they are less fertile the second time. These are from the nest south of the waterfront ...

... and these at the end of the fallen tree are from a nest on the other side of the lake.

The duckboards in the Italian Garden fountains are never used by ducks or any other birds as a way of getting in or out, but they do provide a convenient place to stand when preening.

For the last few days the Black Swan has been going about by himself and ignoring his Mute mate. Both seem depressed at their failure. But when he saw me he hurried over for some sunflower hearts.

The resident pair of Egyptian Geese cooled off under the marble fountain on the edge of the Italian Garden.

A female Pochard at the Vista gave the camera a quizzical look.

Little mauve convolvulus flowers at the corner of the Dell are popular with Honeybees.

As male Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonflies age they lose their powdery blue 'pruination' and become very drab. With most species it's the male that is showy and the female drab but here it's the other way around, with dull blue-grey males and beautiful yellow and black females.

Deceitful Wren

A pair of Wrens in the Flower Walk have a late nest, perhaps a second try after losing a brood. One appeared on a branch carrying a mixed bag of insects.

I could hear the young one calling in a hedge. The parent was keen to hide where the nest was, so it moved to a branch some distance away, scolding loudly, and then flew off to disappear into the bushes on the far side of the path as if going to a nest there.

The female Little Owl could be seen in the nest tree, though only from a distance ...

... and it was the same with her daughter in the plane tree.

The young Robin at Mount Gate is now a regular customer for pine nuts. Its probable parents could also be seen, but not the younger fledgling.

A tatty Magpie perched on an arch at the bridge.

Ahmet Amerikali was at the east end of the Lido when a Reed Warbler came out of a tree, was surprised to see him, and almost lost its footing on the twig.

Black-Headed Gulls ar now returning in larger numbers, and there were groups on the fallen trees in the Long Water ...

... and on the posts at Peter Pan, making the shot that all the tourists take.

Another picture by Ahmet, a Little Grebe on the Serpentine going to the island. I've seen them there occasionally, but they soon go back to the Long Water where there is more cover.

The Great Crested Grebes at the island were resting by their incomplete (well, barely begun) new nest, showing no signs of wanting to get on with the job ...

... but the grebe at the Dell restaurant looked comfortable in the shade of the balcony.

A Coot on the oppsite shore had a brisk wash and flap before preening.

In hot weather there is less oxygen dissolved in the water, and the carp in the Italian Garden fountains rise to just under the surface to make the most of what's there.

A Harlequin Ladybird larva fell out of a tree by the Dell and landed on me, so I coaxed it on to my left hand and took a picture of it with the small camera.

A bee, probably a very worn Honeybee, fed on False Heather, Cuphea hyssopifolia, in the Rose Garden ...

... and the wild vervain in the Italian Garden was full of Honeybees.

The Goodyear blimp flew over the park.

The current models, of which there are four only one of which is in Europe, are actually no longer blimps. They are semi-rigid with an internal frame, and are made by the old firm, Zeppelin. The two side engines can be swivelled up and down and there is a clever little sideways propeller on the rear engine, so the craft is very manoeuvrable. It can actually land to take on its twelve passengers without needing a mooring tower as the old airships did. But they were four times as long and the Graf Zeppelin had a grand piano in the lounge, specially made by Bechstein with an aluminium frame.