Duncan Campbell's list of bees

A Jay was feeling the heat.

A female Chaffinch lurked in the shade of a yew tree in the leaf yard.

Wrens could be heard all along the edge of the Long Water, mostly hidden deep in the bushes.

There are no leaves on this tree in the Flower Walk because moth larvae have eaten them all. But the larvae in turn provide a feast for Long-Tailed Tits.

One of the Little owlets at the Serpentine Gallery looked out of a hole in the second sweet chestnut tree -- not the one with their nest. I'm sure this tree is hollow from top to bottom, and the owlets climb around inside and can emerge from any hole.

Their mother was outside, perched on a branch.

The horse chestnuts at the Round Pond have few holes if any. If the owlets want to go inside they have to fly over to the dead tree where their nest was.

The male, in another tree, turned round and gave me a nasty look as I got too close to his offspring.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull took a pause during his lunch and a Carrion Crow sneaked in. He saw it off ...

... and went back for a second helping.

A pair of Coots have nested under the boat platform, a good place as the chicks can scuttle into shelter if a gull passes over.

There were three new Mallard ducklings at the east end of the Lido. Their mother was sensibly keeping them next to a reed bed to deter swooping gulls. Even so, she probably had a lot more than these three to start with.

An Egyptian Goose was eating plane leaves. You'd think these leathery leaves were too tough to be palatable.

The Bar-Headed x Greylag Goose hybrid looks exactly like a pure Bar-Head and is quite small and agile, without the tendency to waddle shown by larger geese. It strode briskly up from the lake to find some grass.

Several Emperor dragonflies were hunting around the Italian Garden.

Duncan Campbell sent a fine picture of a Comma butterfly, clearly showing the 'comma' mark on its underwing.

He has also sent me his provisional list of 21 bees he has identified in the park with reasonable certainty. He has pictures of at least another 10 that he hasn't been able to identify yet, but he's working on them. Here is the list so far, with his picture of what is probably an Ashy Mining Bee, Andrena cineraria.

Hylaeus (Yellow-Faced Bees)

Common Yellow-Faced Bee

White-Jawed Yellow-Faced Bee

Andrena (Mining Bees)

Tawny Mining Bee

Ashy Mining Bee

Yellow-Legged Mining Bee

Red-Girdled Mining Bee

Anthidium (Wool Carders)

Wool Carder Bee

Osmia (Mason Bees)

Red Mason Bee

Blue Mason Bee

Megachile (Leafcutter Bees)

Patchwork Leafcutter Bee

Nomada (Nomad Bees)

Gooden’s Nomad Bee

Anthrophora (Flower Bees)

Hairy-Footed Flower Bee

Green-Eyed Flower Bee

Bombus (Bumblebees)

Buff-Tailed Bumblebee

White-Tailed Bumblebee

Red-Tailed Bumblebee

Early Bumblebee

Tree Bumblebee

Common Carder Bee

Vestal Cuckoo Bee

Apis (Honeybees)

Western Honeybee

Young Grey Herons getting restless

A Great Spotted Woodpecker called from an oak tree in the leaf yard.

A Dunnock perched for a moment in a holly tree.

The female Coal Tit in the Flower Walk came out to be fed.

Long-Tailed Tits hunted in a hawthorn tree.

One of the Little owlets near the Round Pond looked out of a hole in the dead tree.

They use several holes in this tree to enter and leave their nest, and this hole is on the other side from where their father was perched in a horse chestnut, so he couldn't see me looking at the owlet. So he stayed silent instead of shouting curses at me as he often does.

One of the owlets at the Serpentine Gallery could be seen deep in the shade of the sweet chestnut tree.

It hissed to encourage a parent to feed it. The presence of people and dogs in the park largely prevents them from being fed in the daytime, so they have to put up with being fed at dawn and dusk. Sometimes a parent manages to find a caterpillar in a tree to keep them going through the day, and they don't seem to be starving.

Their mother was on the other side of the tree. She's very calm about being photographed.

The young Grey Herons in the nest on the island have reached the stage where they stand on the edge of the nest and flap their developing wings. Soon they will be climbing around in the trees.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull now doesn't spend much time in his original hunting ground at the Dell restaurant, as the pigeons here have become wary. But he was there today, running after a pigeon which got away.

I could only see two Cormorants, this one on the Long Water and another at the Serpentine island. Evidently this year's young fish haven't grown large enough to interest them.

The young carp in the Italian Garden fountains are about 2 inches long.

This is just the right size for Great Crested Grebes to feed to their young, but there are very few grebes in the park at present. I don't know what has gone wrong here this year. It might be partly due to the increasing number of pike in the lake.

The young Coots from the nest in front of the Peter Pan statue are now mostly finding their own food, though they will beg when a parent is around.

A Red-Crested Pochard drake at the Vista was fully in eclipse but still looking quite smart, with female-pattern plumage contrasting with his male red bill and eyes. Females have brown eyes and a greyish-brown bill with a hint of pink around the edges.

A Speckled Wood butterfly basked in the grass. There are lots of these around at the moment, as well as Meadow Browns.

Duncan Campbell found some more interesting butterflies, a Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) ...

... and an Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola).

Grey Wagtails return

A pair of Grey Wagtails, not seen here for some time, perched on the scaffolding surrounding one of the small boathouses which is being renovated.

Birds don't usually like citrus fruit, but this Carrion Crow was happily eating a bit of a satsuma orange that a picnicker had given it.

Another crow basked in the sunshine ...

... but the familiar Coal Tit in the Flower Walk was staying in the shade of a yew tree.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery fluffed herself up after a preening session.

One of the owlets looked out from the chestnut leaves.

Neil thinks he saw the male owl here, which no one else has seen for months, though he didn't get the chance of a picture. It was shouting at him ...

... as was the male owl near the Round Pond when I went there.

He didn't like me getting too close to the nest tree, where one of the youngsters was just emerging before flying up into a horse chestnut.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good shot of him in flight.

The Mute Swan family at the Vista fed in the shade of the bushes.

I hadn't seen the single surviving Greylag gosling for a while, but it turned up today, now a handsome teenager.

The moulting Canadas are being quite slow about regrowing their flight feathers. This is one with a speckled head which visits the park every year to moult.

Blondie had actually managed to cross the lake to the other side, unusual for this fantastically sedentary bird. I've never seen her flying.

This dragonfly in the Rose Garden is a female Black-Tailed Skimmer, much prettier than the dull blue-grey male of the species. I couldn't see what it was eating. (Incidentally, putting its name in a video got me banned from Vimeo and they ignored my request to undo the ban. Evidently they considered it a racial insult.)

Elizabeth got a pleasing picture of a Comma butterfly on a railing.

A Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) drank nectar from privet blossom in the Flower Walk.

There was also a Tree Bumblebee.

Another interesting picture from Duncan Campbell. This bee on the eryngium at the back of the Lido is probably a Yellow-Legged Mining Bee (Andrena flavipes).

Staying in the shade

A hot day again, and the small birds were keeping in the shade. This Great Tit was in the red-leafed cherry tree in the Flower Walk.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits were flitting around inside a hawthorn, a favourite species with them as evidently it harbours a lot of insects.

But Neil photographed a pair of Blackbirds enjoyably sunbathing.

A young Chaffinch in the leaf yard was being fed by its parents in a yew tree. It came out on a twig for a moment.

The female Little Owl near the Round Pond was keeping an eye on the family from a shady branch in a tall lime tree.

One of the owlets could be seen in a horse chestnut.

Julia got a good picture of one spreading its wings.

Both owlets could be seen at the Serpentine Gallery ...

... though one was lurking in the shadows.

Their mother was lower down in the tree.

The two young Grey Herons in the nest on the Serpentine island stood side by side looking out over the lake.

The hot weather has made the water murky with small algae, as you can see in this view of a Great Crested Grebe below the bridge.

The Coots from the nest by the bridge, now healthy teenagers, absolutely refuse to become independent and are still following their parents about squeaking like babies, and still being fed. Some tough love is clearly necessary.

This female Pochard, seen from above on the weir at the outflow of the Serpentine, had ducklings a few days ago -- a very rare occurrence with Pochards here. But it looks as if they have been swept over the weir and are in the lower chamber next to the water filter, which is why she is hanging around on the edge. They can survive for some time here on the algae, plants and water creatures inside. But how can they get up? Rescuing them and putting them on the lake would just get them eaten by the ever present Herring Gulls.

The ugly koi, not seen for months, turned up in the same place. It has been here for years, and must have been discarded by its owner because he didn't like the look of its face.

Duncan Campbell continues to find interesting species of bee that I have never even heard of. This is a Red-Girdled Mining Bee, Andrena labiata, photographed next to a Honeybee to show how small it is.

It was attacked by an even smaller bee, maybe a male White Jawed Yellow-Faced Bee, Hylaeus confusus.

I am still at the beginner stage of trying to identify white butterflies, and one I claimed as a Large White several days ago turned out to be a Green-Veined White. But Neil sent this picture of a confidently identified Large White on the Verbena bonariensis in the Flower Walk ...

... and I think the one in my own picture taken in the same place is also Large, to judge by the well defined black wingtip.

Another fine picture by Neil: the dwarf pomegranate bush behind the statue of Big Bird is putting out flowers and developing fruit.