More grebes

A Little Grebe, not seen here since March, has returned to the Long Water. It preened and stretches under the marble fountain on the edge of the Italian Garden ...

... and dived for small fish under the spray.

There are three Great Grebe chicks from the nest in the willow at the bridge, not two as I thought. A parent brought a fish for one of them.

The three chicks of the other family could be seen near the Vista.

The Mute Swans' invasion of the Long Water has resumed, and the intruders seem to be in possession of the lake for some distance north of the Vista, where they were touting for food.

The two cygnets of the original residents were at Peter Pan, while their parents hung around not knowing what to do.

The old dominant male, now sadly dead, would never have stood for this. The female should have remarried a tougher swan, though that might have meant a serious fight with the big bully from the Long Water.

So there was only one cygnet on the Serpentine, belonging to the pair that nested on the island. They were behind the railings on the small boathouse, no doubt relieved that their persecutor was the other side of the bridge.

Just as I was about to give up looking for Little Owls at the Round Pond, one of the owlets flew down on to the family's usual branch in the horse chestnut.

The owlet at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from the lime. They are both beginning to get adult white spots on their head, which emerge gradually and not suddenly at the first moult when they get darker brown plumage.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks, disarranged by the wind.

A Magpie stared challengingly from a tree at the Vista, wanting a peanut.

A young Blackbird appeared at the Diana fountain car park. It's been a good year for breeding Blackbirds.

For those missing the House Sparrows, here's a picture from the Tower of London by Mark Williams of a female ...

... and a young Starling, both scrounging at the open-air café..

A caterpillar climbed its own thread on a bush near the bridge. I think it's a Small Tortoiseshell.

Red Admirals and Meadow Browns are the commonest butterflies in the park at the moment, and have been constantly visiting the buddleia bush near the bridge.

When they had flown away a Hornet Hoverfly visited the same flower.

Fairy Ring mushrooms and fallen leaves at the Round Pond: autumn is approaching. It would be pleasing to have a bit more summer first.

Blackberry feast

A Wood Pigeon fed in a bramble patch on the west side of the Long Water.

A Song Thrush fed in a bramble patch on the east side of the Long Water.

A family of Wrens bounced around in an alder across the path. One of the young ones appeared for a moment.

A Blue Tit looked for insects in an ash.

It wasn't a good day for seeing Little Owls, but the owlet at the Serpentine Gallery was distantly visible in the lime.

A Grey Heron looked through the reeds in the Dell stream.

The Great Crested Grebes nesting in the willow by the bridge were feeding the chicks.

All three chicks of the other family were visible on their father's back.

The Coot family at the bridge are all grown up but still clinging to the nest.

The single Tufted duckling on the Long Water, which I had long ago given up as lost, reappeared triumphantly and much larger at the Vista. No wonder its mother looks so pleased with herself.

The Mute Swans with five cygnets on the Serpentine had given up their invasion of the Long Water for the time being. Their mother brought them to the edge for a bit of begging.

A young fox asleep in the Dell ...

... was briefly roused by the sound of a jazz band in the garden of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, decided it wasn't a threat, and went back to sleep.

A pair of Willow Emerald damselflies mated in the Italian Garden, the first I've seen this year.

A closer look at the iridescent green and bronze splendour of the male.

Common Carder bees were all over the park, in the Great Willowherb next to the damselflies ...

... and in a clump of Agapanthus in the Dell ...

... which also attracted Honeybees.

A crop of small white mushrooms has come up under the yew by the bridge. I've not seen mushrooms here before. Their species may become apparent if they get the chance to grow a bit bigger.

Another brood of grebe chicks

The Great Crested Grebes nesting in the willow by the bridge have two chicks. A parent brought a small fish for one of them.

The chicks had a quick swim before climbing on to a parent's back to keep warm.

The grebes with three chicks have reappeared, lurking under a tree south of the Vista.

There were seven Mandarins on the lake today, a record number, plus another one on the Round Pond. Three females preened together next to the Dell restaurant, and a fourth cruised past.

This is a drake in eclipse at the Vista. You can see a few remnants of his breeding finery. The iridescent blue secondary feathers remain even in eclipse.

Returning Cormorants perched in their favourite tree on the Serpentine island. They prefer bare branches, which are easier for these big clumsy birds to land on. Actually it seems surprising that they manage it at all.

At the Round Pond it was the turn of the male Little Owl to stand on the family's usual branch. I'm beginning to think that he enjoys posing for his portrait. I always talk encouragingly to him.

The female at the Serpentine Gallery was in the lime tree.

The Reed Warbler feeding chicks was again visible by the Italian Garden.

Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of one of the chicks.

Long-Tailed Tits worked their way down the edge of the Long Water.

It started to rain heavily in the afternoon. One of the Peregrines huddled miserably on the tower.

A hardy Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was out in the rain, sensibly keeping to the underside of the globe thistles.

But otherwise it was a hopeless day for insects, so here are some non-bee pictures taken earlier by Duncan Campbell.

A Holly Blue butterfly fed on a flower.

A Silver Y moth clearly showed the Y marking that gives it its name.

A Hornet Hoverfly looked enormous on an eryngium flower -- but it's a dwarf eryngium in the Rose Garden and the insect is only as big as the Hornet it mimics.

This is the strangest of the batch, a small wasp with the scientific name Gasteruption jaculator. Note the way it holds its abdomen up at an angle, and the incredibly long ovipositor of this female. 

The name could do with an explanation. Gasteruption comes from the Greek γαστήρ (gastēr), belly, and  ὕπτιος ([h]uptios), turned up. Jaculator is Latin for javelin thrower, because of the long ovipositor which this parasitoid insect uses to inject its eggs into the nests of solitary bees and wasps, where the larvae devour the larvae of the hosts.

Tinúviel hand fed sparrows at a café in Gijón on the north coast of Spain. How I miss them here in London.

Finally, a tricky problem for the boat hire people. Last night some joyriders took a pedalo on to the Long Water and abandoned it. It drifted under one of the water spouts of the Italian Garden, filled with water, and sank until it was firmly aground and much too heavy to tow off. It will have to be pumped out before it can be moved.

The swan invasion continues

The invading Mute Swans from the Serpentine continue to advance up the Long Water, and had brought their five cygnets well past the Vista.

Rival males had a brief fight before going back to the usual threat display cruising side by side with wings raised.

But these weren't the male invader versus the resident male. It was, I think, the resident male attacking another swan that had strayed on to the lake, to show how tough he was. He daren't attack the invader, who is the terror of the lake --  and was not impressed, calmly preening on the edge.

Mute cygnets are not mute at all: they are quite noisy, squeaking plaintively.

Also at the Vista, a pair of Greylag Geese had a faceoff with one of the resident Moorhens. The cause of the dispute was a tiny amount of oatmeal on the kerb.

The female Mallard by the Triangle car park is now down to her last duckling.

There was a slightly better view of the Great Crested Grebe on the nest by the bridge.

I now haven't seen the grebes with chicks for two days running. I don't think this is necessarily bad news, as if they had lost the chicks we would have seen them alone. Probably they have just found a good place to lurk in shelter.

The old Grey Heron by the Henry Moore sculpture was enjoying a good scratch.

There was just enough sunshine to encourage a Feral Pigeon to bask ...

... but the Little Owls at the exposed Round Pond were staying indoors. The female looked out of the back entrance of the nest tree.

The female at the Serpentine Gallery could just be seen through a gap in the leaves of the lime tree.

The male Peregrine on the tower had an almighty yawn.

A Reed Warbler below the Italian Garden was feeding chicks, and kept coming out of the reeds to catch insects for them.

A Gatekeeper butterfly perched in the long grass near the Round Pond, the first one I've seen this year.

Buddleia is sometimes called 'butterfly bush', and indeed butterflies love it. Here are a Red Admiral and a Meadow Brown on the same flower head.

A clump of Scarlet Beebalm in the Rose Garden lived up to its name by attracting Common Carder bees. There were at least a dozen climbing all over it.