Insolent young heron

A Blackbird and a Song Thrush looked for insects on the bare ground and wood chips under the statue of Peter Pan. The area is being landscaped and, as usual, it has taken months and is still unfinished.

A Blue Tit in the corkscrew hazel was getting impatient about being phtographed when it wanted a pine nut.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out on his usual branch in the mid-afternoon.

A shaft of light caught a Grey Heron in the Dell as it examined a clump of plants, looking for a rat.

A young one from the latest nest, now out and exploring, rudely expelled a senior heron from the willow tree by the bridge. I've left the traffic noise from the bridge unaltered so you can hear the heron nattering.

The young Pied Wagtail was hunting along the edge by the Dell restaurant ...

... getting close to Pigeon Eater, but its lightning takeoff would keep it out of danger.

Pigeon Eater had his mind on other things. He lunged at a Feral Pigeon but missed, sending a plastic cup flying.

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

One of the Little Grebe chicks at the bridge passed the time by preening as it waited for a parent to bring a fish.

One of the two Great Crested Grebe chicks at Fisherman's Keep stretched its wings. It has flight feathers now, but I don't think it will be in any hurry to take to the air.

This is the family that can be seen at the reed bed east of the Lido. The chick on the left had just been given a fish by its mother when there was an anxious moment as a young Herring Gull flew over. But it didn't notice and passed by, so there was no need for a crash dive.

When I last saw the single Moorhen chick at the island it was limping, but today it has recovered completely and was trotting about happily enough.

The two Coot chicks from the nest in the water lilies in the Italian Garden were back in place with a parent. The water lilies have almost gone but the strongly built nest endures, even when hijacked by a heron as a fishing station.

There was the usual confused mass of Mute Swans on the Long water and it was hard to see what was going on. The Black Swan and 4GIQ went back and forth under the bridge several times.

4DTT, the mother of the Long Water cygnet, was at Peter Pan but that was the only member of the family I saw. 

There was some chasing on the lake, and later there was an injured swan though this proved to be the victim of a dog bite. It was rescued by Jenna and Mod, and is now being looked after.

The durable Sea Lavender in the Rose Garden has been a huge success with insects of many kinds. A Small White butterfly unfurled its tongue to drink some nectar.

I think this is a Superb Ant-Hill Hoverfly, Philhelius pedissequus, a glorious name for a little insect.

Bunfight at the Lido restaurant

Starlings at the Lido restaurant squabbled over a ciabatta roll which was used as a bun for an upmarket hamburger.

A young Blackbird in the Dell looked for fruit in a yew tree, and an adult male foraged on the ground.

The female Coal Tit, with a white patch over her eye ...

... and the male appeared in the yew ...

... along with a Blue Tit.

A Robin at Mount Gate had a matching background of red cockspur hawthorn leaves. This is one of the young Robins brought up by one of the two resident pairs this year.

Four Jays, two parents and two young, demanded peanuts at the Serpentine Gallery ...

... where the male Little Owl was out on his usual branch in the plane tree.

The pair of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls at the Triangle, encouraged by their recent kill of a Feral Pigeon, were eyeing the shore hungrily. The male, who does the hunting, is at the front here. You can see the slight difference in head shape between the sexes.

The Little Grebe chicks were being shadowed by Black-Headed Gulls waiting to grab a fish brought by an adult. I don't think the gulls ever get one, as both adults and chicks can dive like lightning.

The Great Crested Grebe family was under the poplar tree, too far away for a worthwhile picture.  This is the single teenager that flew in from somewhere and now fishes at the Triangle. It's losing its juvenile stripes ...

... and will soon be hard to distinguish from an adult in winter plumage, like this one at the Lido which has shed its summer finery well before the others.

A Moorhen fed a chick on the shore nearby.

The Mute Swan mob was still at the Vista, and the Black Swan was with them.

I didn't see the resident pair 4HDW and 4DTT, and their cygnet was by itself again, near the Italian Garden. The formerly dominant pair really do seem to have lost their mojo, and no one knows why.

A Shoveller drake fed under the willow at the bridge, still in eclipse but looking smart.

A patch of baby sage in the Rose Garden attracted a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee. They can't get into the long narrow flowers, so they punch a hole in the side with their sharp proboscis to get at the nectar.

A male Willow Emerald damselfly rested on the Dell railings.

The lure of pine nuts

A Blue Tit perched among rose hips in the Rose Garden and ate a pine nut it took from my hand.

A Great Tit arrived for its share.

The male Coal Tit in the Dell appeared in the big yew tree to collect pine nuts from the railings. These expensive little nuts are the best possible bribe for getting pictures.

Starlings preened and chattered on the Lido restaurant terrace as they waited to raid a table.

A Grey Wagtail ate a Willow Emerald damselfly it had caught at the Peter Pan waterfront.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine was on his current favourite branch in the plane tree. Fairly soon he's going to get bored with perching in the same place and move, and there will be a serious hunt to find him again.

Pigeon Eater, resting on the roof of the Dell restaurant ...

... was keeping out of sight of two young Lesser Black-Backed Gulls which had been begging at him. One of them may be his, perhaps even both, but they are supposed to be finding their own food now.

I thought the latest brood of Grey Herons were independent now, but when I passed the island there was the familiar clattering from their nest and one of the young birds could be seen. Whether its parents are still feeding it is unclear, it may just be trying it on like those young gulls.

A heron at the southwest corner of the bridge often perches on the top of a holly tree.

Cormorants returned from fishing to dry on the posts at the Serpentine island.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick on the Serpentine preened and flapped its little wings.

The three on the Long Water were wandering around separately and didn't make a good picture, but the Little Grebe chicks came out from the willow tree at the bridge ...

... where a parent was fishing a short way off. It's odd that we never see both parents looking after the chicks together. Probably we see both separately, but I can't tell them apart.

The Mute cygnet on the Long Water was alone again, and I couldn't distinguish its parents among the two dozen adults on the Long Water.

People have reported seeing a female Scaup, but I'm fairly sure that what they have seen is the Pochard x Tufted Duck hybrid, here seen on the Long Water.

The breeding success of the Mandarins has distributed them all over the lake. These two were on the landing stage by the Diana fountain.

A squirrel clung on tight as it reached down to drink from the Huntress fountain. The water is fairly foul, but the nearest clean water in the lake is too far away to be worth the hike.

Swan manoeuvres

There has been an upset in the established order of the Mute Swans. Until recently the Long Water was the established territory of the new boss swan 4HDW and his mate 4DTT, the widow of the previous boss 4DTH. All intruders were chased back under the bridge. But for a couple of days there has been quite a crowd here, and today they were joined by the Black Swan and his mate 4GIQ. He was having a faceoff with a Grey Heron ...

... and when 4HDW and 4DDT's cygnet arrived he shooed it away.

Meanwhile 4HDW and 4DTT were at Peter Pan by themselves, clearly having lost some kind of contest and preening to console themselves. Is the Black Swan trying to take over the Long Water?

The motley crew of Cormorants, Moorhens, Mallards, Tufted Ducks and Common Pochards on the fallen tree at Peter Pan were joined by a Red-Crested Pochard drake, seen above the flying Mallard in this picture.

Two of the three Great Crested Grebe chicks chased their mother past the Vista.

The two from the nest on the north side of the island were resting by the Lido restaurant.

The Little Grebes were under the bridge. The chicks are now almost as large as their parents and eating substantial fish.

Pigeon Eater gave a food container by the Dell restaurant a cursory check before going back to hunting.

Two Grey Wagtails were hunting insects on the edge of the restaurant terrace, an adult and a young one. The young bird is already independent and no longer being fed. 

It flew off to the other end of the terrace. Spilt food from the restaurant brings plenty of insects, and there are often wagtails here and at the Lido restuarant.

A Blue Tit waited among rose hips in the Rose Garden.

The young Robin is already coming out of the flower bed to take pine nuts from the path.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge has been a regular customer for two years.

A Jay on the other side of the path had a background of mauve autumn crocuses.

There are only a few olives in this tree by the Lido restaurant, and a Wood Pigeon was struggling to reach any of them.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down gravely from the plane tree.

Common Carder bees are fast moving and restless, and only spend a few seconds on each sunflower in the Rose Garden before flying off to the next -- unlike the large bumblebees which go carefully over the whole flower and may spend several minutes on one.

Another was browsing on something I had never heard of, a Seven Son Flower. There are several large bushes newly planted in the circle in the Rose Garden, conveniently flowering in autumn to suit the bees as other flowers wither. It's a Chinese species and, as so often with numbered plants, the number is wrong -- as you can see the flowers form in clusters of six.