Little Owl shelters from the rain

None of the Little Owls were visible on a grey morning, and then it started to drizzle and finally to rain hard, so I thought we wouldn't see one. But surprisingly the male adult at the Serpentine Gallery was out near the nest hole, sheltering under an overhanging branch.

A pair of Carrion Crows at the Diana fountain looked soulfully into each other's eyes, or maybe they were just planning some ghastly exploit.

The male Peregrine on the tower was getting wet, and shifted about uncomfortably.

A young Blackbird in the Dell found a grub in a flower bed.

Also in the Dell, a young Grey Heron looked out from the top of a deodar tree.

Mark Williams photographed a young Robin in St James's Park, still with hardly any red feathers but singing loudly like an adult. It seems very early for it to start singing.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had moved away from his usual hunting ground and claimed a victim next to the Serpentine island. Note how, not having suitable feet to hold it,  he uses the kerb to anchor it so that can can rip pieces out.

The Great Crested Grebe nest below the Diana fountain has survived yesterday's strong wind.

The nest opposite Peter Pan is the only other active one as far as I know.

The Coots with four chicks in the Italian Garden can't stop making nests, and have just built a third one.

The pair in the next pool with seven have never bothered to make any more nests, but the chicks are thriving and growing fast.

There is a new nest in the middle of the Long Water, supported on a fallen poplar tree that is now completely submerged.

A Moorhen in the Dell was on the pair's favourite rock. They made a brief attempt to nest earlier in the year but now seem to have lost enthusiasm.

The Mute Swans on the Long Water had hopefully brought their cygnets to Peter Pan to beg, but I was the only person there and I don't feed swans.

The Egyptian Geese at the boat hire platform brought their seven teenagers round the pedalos. I feel a bit unkind not feeding them, but grass and algae are much better for them.

To brighten up a grey scene, here are three bee pictures from Duncan Campbell, taken yesterday. He is pretty sure that this is a Patchwork Leafcutter Bee, Megachile centuncularis,  and I think the beetle is Oedemera lurida, one of the False Blister Beetles but without a specific common name. They were near the tennis courts.

This one in the Rose Garden is probably a Yellow-Legged Mining Bee, Andrena flavipes.

And this could be a Grey-Patched Mining Bee, Andrena nitida, but he is far from sure.

Timid Song Thrush

A young Song Thrush preened beside the Long Water. When a tiny Wren (out of shot) came out and glared it it, it moved off hastily to resume its preening at a safe distance.

Starlings had a mass bathing session at the terrace of the Lido restaurant.

A Jay near the Albert Memorial made it clear that it wanted a peanut.

A Carrion Crow gave me a looks suggesting that if I didn't feed it it would exact a terrible revenge.

A strong wind was blasting across the Round Pond. The male Little Owl looked out of the back entrance of the nest tree, on the lee side.

It was quite windy at the Serpentine Gallery too, and the male owl was well down inside the sweet chestnut tree ...

... while an owlet sheltered in a crevice.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was at his usual station looking around for his next meal.

The old Grey Heron under the Henry Moore sculpture resented the intrusion of a youngster ...

... and chased it off. It may be old but it still rules this patch.

A Coot chick enjoyed a frantic wash.

The dominant female Mute Swan from the Serpentine incautiously came under the bridge on the Long Water. (Her sixth cygnet was straggling behind under the bridge.)

The dominant male on the Long Water went off to deal with her. She retreated. It was lucky that her mate wasn't with her. If these big beasts ever come into conflict there is likely to be a fight to the death.

The Long Water female looked after the cygnets at Peter Pan.

I've been told that it was the dominant male on the Serpentine that killed three of the four cygnets belonging to the swan from the island, and I can well believe it.

A Mallard with five brand new ducklings crossed the waterfront at Peter Pan and took them into the safety of the bushes.

The Mandarin and her duckling were on the landing stage again. Obviously the duckling can't jump up this high from the water, but they can get on from the land side.

A Ermine Moth clung to a grass stem beside the Long Water.

Different Little owlets

A young Robin on the edge of the Rose Garden was just getting its first red feathers.

A Wren sang beside the Long Water.

A Little owlet at the Serpentine Gallery perched on the broken top of the sweet chestnut nest to their nest tree. The tree is hollow from top to bottom and they climb about inside it, sometimes appearing out of a lower hole.

Later it flew back to the nest tree and posed on a branch, looking so charming that I just have to put up another picture.

There was quite a wind at the exposed Round Pond but the male adult was out in the morning, fluffed up to keep warm.

When I photographed the two Round Pond owlets together on Thursday they were looking quite different from each other, one being much rounder. At the time I just thought it was was fluffed up and the other wasn't. But Joe Downing sent me a picture of the round owlet looking exactly the same. It has the look of a female Little Owl, but I'm surprised that it should start looking like that so early in its life -- I think it's about eight weeks old.

Here for comparison is the other owlet.

Another picture from Joe, an excellent shot of the local Hobby.

A Great Crested Grebe worked along the edge of the Serpentine hoovering up tiny fish in the shallows.

The grebe nest at the outflow was washed away yesterday when the wind got up. They hadn't laid any eggs. There's plenty of time for them to start again in a more sensible place (though grebes lack judgement about which places are sensible).

The nest by the Diana fountain reed bed is still intact, ramshackle as it looks.

So is the one on the Long Water opposite Peter Pan.

Coot chicks can submerge briefly even when very young but they have to learn to go right down and crop algae, which they do by copying their parents. This is the family at the bridge.

A teenage Moorhen was still being fed by a parent, although it was perfectly capable of finding its own food.

The milling crowds had obliged the Mandarin and her duckling to cross the lake, where they were resting on the little landing stage, which is fenced off and usually free of people.

The Egyptian Geese with seven teenagers were keeping out of the way beside one of the small boathouses.

The Bar-Head x Greylag cross is an experienced park bird and used to crowds. It saw me and trotted up for a peanut.

A Meadow Brown butterfly drank from a knapweed flower.

A rather tattered Comma rested on the path in the allotment, and held its ground even when examined at close quarters by a family.

It even consented to climb on to an outstretched hand, and stayed there for a couple of minutes before flying off.

Intrusive Stock Doves

Stock Doves investigated the Little Owls' hole in the dead tree at the Round Pond. There's never a hole they don't try to get into, and they must be a sore trial to owls everywhere.

It didn't matter to this owlet, as it was round at the back entrance.

An owlet at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from the top of the sweet chestnut tree where it was hatched.

A Dunnock sang briefly in a tree beside the Long Water. Most of the birds have stopped singing now that their chicks are fledged. Shortly after I took this picture, it was chased into a bush by one of its young.

A young Blackbird perched on a Chinese Water Fir in the Dell. Another could be heard in the bushes below.

A Carrion Crow in Rotten Row constantly pestered by two fledglings finally shooed them away.

A pleasing picture by Mark Williams of a young Long-Tailed Tit at the Welsh Harp reservoir.

After the Coots with four chicks in the Italian Garden moved into a different fountain pool, the parents quickly built a second nest to provide a safe spot for them.

A pair of Egyptian Geese had five goslings on the gravel strip in the Long Water. This is their second brood this year after they lost the first.

The Mandarin and her single duckling, in their usual place by the Triangle car park, had a quiet moment to rest and preen. The wind was quite strong, so she moved round to the other side of the duckling to shelter it.

A Red-Crested Pochard drake at the Vista was going into eclipse, losing his fine bouffant hairstyle. He will soon have the same plumage as a female, though his red bill and eye will distinguish him.

Despite the wind a fox could bask in the sunshine in the sheltered Dell. It stayed alert, aware of people looking at it over the fence.

A Yellow-Bellied Slider terrapin was also basking on a fallen tree in the Long Water.

A female Emperor dragonfly laid eggs on a water lily leaf in the Italian Garden.

A Comma butterfly settled on a leaf beside the Long Water.

A Common Carder bee visited a thistle.

The Persian Catmint in the Rose Garden attracted Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.