Wasp attack

The female Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery, dozing in a lime tree, woke up for long enough to look at me with one eye, decided I wasn't a threat, and went back to sleep.

The female Peregrine was alone on the barracks tower. Usually when there's just one here it's the male, but you can see the clear white patch on the side of her face. On the male it's dirty grey.

There weren't many small birds on show, but the usual Great Tits came out for pine nuts. This one was in the Dell.

The Grey Heron at the Italian Garden stared at a gap in the algae, waiting for a fish to appear at the edge.

A Great Crested Grebe chick by the boat hire platform climbed aboard its mother by swimming against her, causing her to revolve, and using its wings as front legs. It isn't an efficient method, but it got up somehow. Meanwhile the father brought a small fish to the other chick.

However, there is no sign of progress on the nest on the island, and it's looking increasing as if the eggs are infertile.

Shown at quarter speed, a Moorhen clenched the toes on its big foot when moving it forward to avoid catching them on the other leg, and swam with an underwater bicycling action.

The Coot chicks in the southwest pool in the Italian Garden enjoyed playing on the duckboard.

The three Mute cygnets were at the boathouse. One examined a patch of moss on the wall.

A Grey Squirrel dug in a flowerbed in the Flower Walk, looking for bulbs planted for next spring.

A Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonfly had caught a Greenbottle fly in the air, and perched for a moment on a bench while eating it.

There are still plenty of Emperor dragonflies around the Italian Garden.

A pair of Willow Emerald damselflies hung from a bramble near the Vista. In this species females are noticeably shorter and thicker than males.

Common Blue damselflies laid eggs in the water at Peter Pan.

While I was photographing a Painted Lady butterfly feeding on a strawflower in the Rose Garden ...

... there was a struggle on the next flower. A wasp was attacking a Honeybee. I can't identify this white-faced wasp. It flew off carrying the bee, which was larger than it.

A Honeybee browsed peacefully on a gypsywort flower in the baskets of mixed water plants at the Triangle.

A clump of Cardoons in the Flower Walk. These tall and handsome plants are halfway between a thistle and a globe artichoke, and are edible though not very good. They were a staple food during the severe Persian famine of 1917-19 caused by the fighting in the First World War.

Chiffchaff and Coal Tits

A Chiffchaff called from a tree in the Flower Walk and, unusually, stayed in the same place long enough to be properly photographed.

The pair of Coal Tits in the Dell have reappeared after their summer break, and came down from the yew in the corner to take pine nuts from the railings.

A pair of Feral Pigeons shared a post at the Vista. Both are in the original colours of the wild Rock Dove, which is now a minority colour among London pigeons which mostly have the darker 'Blue Chequer' pattern. Pigeons do seem to prefer mates of their own colour.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery wasn't visible earlier, but appeared in his usual lime tree as I was going home.

The Grey Heron in the Italian Garden had been displaced by the Sunday crowds and was on the edge of the lower basin of the marble fountain. It could always jump down to the submerged wall below the basin if it wanted to look for a fish in the mat of algae.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were in their favourite place on the Dell restaurant roof.

A Black-Headed Gull made itself comfortable on a deserted Coot nest on the fallen horse chestnut north of Peter Pan.

I think these Great Crested Grebes with two chicks come from a nest at the east end of the island, where there is an overhanging bush with a suitable submerged branch. They also look like the pair that nested earlier on the chain, but lost their nest because the boat people tied a boat to the chain.

They were making territorial displays against the pair nesting halfway along the island. The nest is still occupied and the eggs are intact, but nothing seems to be happening.

The Mandarin chicks on the Round Pond are growing well. There are ten in this video, but they wander around and the eleventh may have been on the far side of the pond. In any case, it's a fine achievement.

A very pale female Pochard stood on a root on the far side of the lake at the Vista.

The Mute Swan pair brought their single cygnet over for a bit of begging.

The Black Swan rested in the shade of the willow at the Triangle. He is very subdued while he regrows his flight feathers and was not bullying the other swans in his usal style.

A heron stood over the three cygnets at the island.

A pair of Canada Geese flew down the Long Water. The population of geese remains high, and a lot that came in to moult in June are still here ...

... as you can see from this picture of the closed Lido.

The four Egyptian goslings cruised past Fisherman's Keep, led by their parents.

A Red Admiral and Painted Lady butterfly fed on the sea lavender in the Rose Garden. This is about as close as they can get without one chasing the other off.

The traditional Wood Pigeon video

A Wood Pigeon eating elderberries predictably reached too far and fell out of the tree.

A Blackbird sunbathed in dead leaves by the Lido.

A young Wren chaattered in the Dell.

A young Pied Wagtail was hunting on the roof of the boat hire building.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery lurked in the big plane tree.

Her mate was more visible in his usual lime.

The young Grey Herons in the fifth nest were lurching around restlessly. They will soon be climbing out.

Two of the three from the previous nest were on the posts at the island.

The resident of the Italian Garden returned from chasing off an intruder.

The single Moorhen chick under the Italian Garden pecked vigrously at the algae, eating some but also searching for little insects and larvae.

Although the Little Grebe calls quite often it seems to be the only one on the Long Water.

The Black Swan and his Mute mate can usually be found between the Diana fountain landing stage and the bridge.

The four new Egyptian goslings on the Serpentine were taking a turn on the water with their parents.

Pochards gathered on one fallen tree at Peter Pan. The one to the left of the Black-Headed Gull is a Tufted drake in eclipse.

Mallards rested on the tree on the other side.

A Red Admiral butterfly worked over the many little florets in the middle of a strawflower in the Rose Garden.

A Common Carder bee browsed on a vervain flower in a planter in the Italian Garden ...

... and a Batman hoverfly fed on a daisy.

Long-Tailed Tit flocks

The damage to the horse chestnut trees caused by leaf miner moth is good news for the Long-Tailed Tits, which pick the larvae off the leaves.

Several flocks were going around the park, in company with other small birds such as Blue Tits and Coal Tits. This one was at Mount Gate.

The male Robin here was slightly tatty from rearing young ...

... but a Great Tit in the Dell had lost more feathers.

However, neither of them was as thoroughly wrecked as the poor Jays at Temple Gate, whose insatiable offspring chased them for weeks.

A young Robin in a holly near the Vista had clearly been at the blackberries.

A Song Thrush near the Italian Garden had a trace of juvenile yellow at the base of its bill showing that it too was young.

The Blackcaps at the southwest corner of the bridge are more heard than seen, but one came out for a moment in a holly tree.

A Wren chattered in an aucuba bush behind the Albert Memorial.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual lime tree.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull stood on the old water level at Fisherman's Keep.

The new Egyptian Goose family seen yesterday was on the shore nearby. Thwre are four goslings, which wandered down the edge of the lake supervised by their parents.

The fallen poplar by Peter Pan provides a resting place for all kinds of birds. A Pochard watched some Canada Geese preening.

At the far end of the tree the Mute Swans and their single cygnet shooed off a Black-Headed Gull.

The other family came up the lake towards the bridge. This is the territory of the Black Swan, but he is in a subdued mood at the moment, and is not attacking them.

A Moorhen on the edge of the lower bowl of the marble fountain in the Italian Garden was surrounded by falling water, keeping it confortably cool.

A Red Admiral butterfly rested at the southwest corner of the bridge. Many of the Red Admirals we see are migrants that have crossed the Channel ...

... but their journey is nothing to that of the Painted Ladies, which travel from Africa as far as Scandinavia, going through as many as six generations on a migration of as much as 9000 miles. This is considerably farther than the famous migration of Monarch butterflies in North America.