Still singing

The Blackbird song season is almost over, but this one was still singing mildly in the Rose Garden. He was answered by a Wood Pigeon.

The male Robin came out at Mount Gate. He's looking a bit worn but not as desperately tatty as his mate.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen in the lime tree some way from her nest.

One of her owlets was begging in the nest tree, very hard to find in the leaves. This was the best picture I could get, and it took all of 20 minutes going round the tree at different distances.

A Grey Heron sunbathed on the shore by the island, ignoring the passing humans.

Magpies nest every year at the Triangle, and the family was bouncing around on the path.

The fallen tree at Peter Pan provides a drinking place for a Carrion Crow ...

... and a Moorhen.

A Coot brought a bit of reed to its mate nesting in the water lilies in the Rose Garden.

The Coots nesting on the swan raft, no longer troubled by the Black Swan, have eggs.

The four Mute cygnets milled around under the balcony of the Dell restaurant while the Great Crested Grebes exchanged places on their eggs.

The hybrid cygnet was by itself near the landing stage, feeling lonely and piping plaintively.

The sound brought both parents over.

There are two Canada Geese with speckled heads here at the moment. We've already seen the one that has a trace of Canada pattern on its face. This one doesn't.

A pair of Egyptians on the Long Water are showing interest in the swan nesting island, unused since the Canadas nested on it some time ago. They do nest on the ground if they can find a safe place.

Two Red-Crested Pochards, two Mallards, a Gadwall and a Tufted Duck lounged in the ducks' meeting place at the Triangle. It's a smelly spot on a hot day.

Common Blue Damselflies mated at Peter Pan.

There were a few Red-Eyed Damselflies in the northeast pool in the Italian Garden.

Angry Wren

A Wren in a holly tree in the Flower Walk ticked furiously at a Magpie. They spend much of their little lives shouting at Magpies.

Ahmet Amerikali found a family of Blackcaps at the southwest corner of the bridge. This is the father.

He also photographed this rather featureless bird in the same place, clearly a warbler but looking odd from the low angle. Tom thinks it's a juvenile Reed Warbler, but isn't sure.

A Jay in the same place was looking hot, but still flew out to grab a peanut from my hand.

The female Little Owlet at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen in the plane tree.

Her mother was asleep in a lime.

The returning Black-Headed Gulls are still mostly at the Round Pond. There was just one on the Long Water, and this one at the landing stage by the Diana fountain. I'm almost sure that this is the dominant gull who owns the landing stage, but he is missing some feathers on his forehead which makes his profile look odd.

A pair of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls moaned at each other at the Triangle. The male, on the left, is in his third year and won't have full adult plumage for another year. The female is an adult.

Generally the large mob of Herring Gulls on the lake perch on the boats, but it's cooler in the water and they have moved. A few Lesser Black-Backs are mixed in.

Looking at the Great Crested Grebes' stolen nest under the Dell restaurant balcony from the other side, it's possible to see two eggs.

The abandoned grebe nest at the island has been taken over by a female Mallard. She is usually accompanied by a Gadwall drake, but this is not the usual trio as the third duck, hard to see at the back, is a Tufted Drake. The picture has been photobombed by two male Common Blue Damselflies. They are everywhere, to the virtual exclusion of other kinds of damselfly.

A Coot cooled off with a vigorous wash.

The hybrid cygnet was alone on the edge by the landing stage with its mother 4GIQ some distance away in the water, preening.

The Black Swan came ashore nearer the bridge, but the attraction was the hope of being given sunflower hearts and not the welfare of his cygnet.

The Mandarin mother and her two teenagers were at the Vista.

In the place at the Triangle where the swans sometimes collect there was a crowd of Mallards resting in the shade all over the path. There was one Gadwall at far left, and at the back a Red-Crested Pochard drake in the middle of the path ...

... who objected strongly to my walking past him at a polite distance.

The urns in the Italian Garden were planted with agaves and Red Yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora, which were thought to be tough and drought tolerant. The agaves have done well but most of the others have died. However, Nature abhors a vacuum and has supplied a poppy.

The grebes at the restaurant have eggs

The Great Crested Grebes who stole the Coots' nest under the balcony of the Dell restaurant now have eggs. You can't see them from this low angle, but the female on the nest is clearly turning them over to keep them evenly warmed.

The Coots who owned the nest and have two chicks are just having to do without.

A pair of Coots nested in an audaciously exposed position on the gravel strip on the Round Pond, where a Herring Gull could stroll up and grab a chick any time it felt hungry. Somehow they've got away with their gamble, but only just as they have one surviving chick.

Mandarin ducklings are very independent and at an early age wander off by themselves. I found four in various parts of the Round Pond. There may have been more.

It was the same on the Serpentine, where one of the two teenagers was resting in the shade of a lifebelt at Fisherman's Keep while the other was with its mother by the bridge.

The single Pochard duckling could be seen across the Vista with its mother.

The Black Swan with his Mute mate 4GIQ were with their cygnet by the bridge, as usual attracting an admiring crowd. They are now a celebrity couple.

The other swan family were at the Dell restaurant terrace, working the tables.

Pigeon Eater was also here, standing on a table. There were Feral Pigeons picking up scraps on the ground and he was clearly working out a way of pouncing on one from above in the narrow space between the benches. He had already killed one today, as I found the remains earlier in Kensington Gardens, probably carried off by a Carrion Crow.

The first Black-Headed Gulls have returned to the Round Pond.

The Greylag Goose U318 and mate were at the Triangle with 14 teenagers hatched outside the park and brought in as soon as they could fly. They can't have had all those by themselves, and probably some of them belong to U410 who has also brought in a family. But it's unusual for Greylags to look after each other's goslings -- unlike Canadas which do this routinely.

A pair of Egyptians at the Round Pond have eight young, now fairly grown up.

Egyptians tend to moult at odd times, not in unison like the larger geese. This one on the Serpentine has started early and is now regrowing its primaries.

The three Grey Heron chicks in the nest at the east end of the island were restless, wandering about and flapping. They will soon be out of the nest and exploring the trees.

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

... and his daughter was in the chestnut.

Theodore found a feather from an adult under the trees.

I looked for Red-Eyed Damselflies in the Italian Garden and found a few in the northeast pool.

This bright fungus on a half-dead cherry tree by Temple Gate is a Shaggy Bracket, Inonotus hispidus.

Angry Mistle Thrushes

Mistle Thrushes near the Albert Memorial rattled angrily at a Magpie perched above in a  plane tree. They've been very scarce this year while Song Thrushes have been abundant.

The female Little owlet looked out of a plane tree.

Her father was in a lime.

A Jay in the chestnut where the owls nested was clearly feeling the heat.

A Great Tit at Mount Gate was threadbare from feeding chicks.

A Grey Heron in the Dell looked at the fin of a carp breaking the surface -- too large to catch but there are plenty of smaller ones for them.

Tom got a dramatic shot of a heron in the Italian Garden jumping into a pool to get a carp. Usually they can reach from the kerb, but this fish must have been too far out. The heron considered it worth the trouble of having to swim to somewhere it could put its feet down, something that herons can do but not well.

The Great Crested Grebes at the Dell restaurant are still holding on to the stolen Coot nest.

The Coots in the northwest pool of the Italian Garden fountains were looking after their five chicks, still only a few days old.

The nest that the Coots built in the middle of the Long Water wasn't properly attached. It came adrift and drifted up the lake. They have abandoned it.

The Black Swan was more interested in getting some sunflower hearts than in his mate and cygnet, and came hurrying over ...

...leaving them in the middle of the Serpentine.

The Greylag Goose U410 and mate have flown in with six teenagers hatched in a safer place outside the park. This is common behaviour now among the big geese. Intelligent birds.

The six Egyptian goslings by the boathouses are growing well.

A pair of Egyptians rested on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan. Although it is dead a profusion of other plants has come up on the rotten wood.

There are five Red-Crested Pochard drakes on the Long Water and one on the Serpentine, but no females. The one preening on the right here is still in his smart breeding plumage, but the other is going into eclipse and looking quite tatty. Soon he will have the same plain light brown plumage as a female, though his red bill will show that he's male.

The Common Pochards used to be extremely shy, but now that we have a permanent ppulation they are adapting to park life and have got quite calm around humans. One sat in the middle of the path at the Triangle and made people walk round him.

This large and handsome bracket fungus on a tree across the road from the Serpentine Gallery is a Dryad's Saddle, Cerioporus squamosus.