Used to falling

When you see a Wood Pigeon eating berries in a bush you know it's going to overreach and fall out quite soon. But they are used to it and this one, only four feet above the ground, saved itself from crashing to the floor and flew up to continue on another branch.

A Song Thrush near the Physical Energy statue was gathering worms for a nest.

The usual Great Tit chicks were clamouring to be fed near the bridge. One of them noticed a clump of larvae in a web in an elder tree ...

... and helped itself. So they are beginning to become independent, which will greatly relieve their exhausted parents.

One of the Coal Tits at Mount Gate was playing peek-a-boo in the leaves. I didn't wait to get a better picture as they need to be fed quickly or they go off in a huff.

A Robin looked out from a bunch of leaves shooting directly from a branch on a severely pruned bush.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual place in the top of the chestnut tree, as annoyed as ever by having a camera pointed at him. He quickly flew off. Perhaps he'll soon realise that it's harmless and relax, as the owls at the Round Pond have done.

The Coot nesting on the wire basket at the island is still there after five days without being evicted by a Grey Heron. Maybe it has a chance of success.

It's the same with the nest on the gravel strip on the Round Pond, an unsuitable site but the only one to be found in this open place.

The Mallard and her ducklings rested on the kerb.

The Mandarin family were racing round the edge.

A single female Mandarin cruised by the Serpentine island ...

... and there was a pair at the Vista, with the drake now well into eclipse and looking tatty. As far as I know there are one male and three females in the park, which is an unusual ratio for ducks. It also raises the question of who is the father of the ducklings on the Round Pond. In China the Mandarin is a symbol of married fidelity, but it looks as if the drake here has been having a bit on the side.

When it rains the middle of the lawn below the Dell turns into a swamp, to the delight of the pair of Mallards living in the Dell, which fly over to pick up flooded-out worms and slugs.

It seems odd that this patch of lawn is so swampy, easpecially as it's on a slight slope and the area downhill remains dry. It may be because it's on the course of a medieval water conduit laid to supply water to the monks of Westminster Abbey, which started roughly where the Dell restaurant is now, and perhaps some pipes remain and are still picking up water. These would have been hollow elm trunks fitted into each other and the joints sealed with pitch.

The Bar-Headed x Greylag Goose hybrid came over for some sunflower seeds. It's a regular visitor and remembers people who feed it. The matching orange bill and feet are very smart.

A Blue-Tailed Damselfly behind the Lido had discovered some aphids on a knapweed stem. It ate them remarkably quickly: I was shooting at five frames a second, and in the next shot all you could see was the aphid's legs.

The first Meadow Brown butterfly was lurking in the long grass by the Queen's Temple.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee fed on a Woodland Sage flower in the Rose Garden ...

... and another was bumbling briskly round and round to gather pollen from a Hypericum at Mount Gate.

When Aristotle was wrong

Three Wren chicks appeared on a tree stump near the Italian Garden. One of them flew to a big leaf of Chilean rhubarb ...

... where it was furious when a parent visited it without bringing an insect.

A Stock Dove wandered around my feet near the Physical Energy statue. This was a surprise, as they are usually shy.

Swifts and House Martins, and probably some Sand Martins too, whizzed over the Round Pond at low altitude catching midges.

It was too windy for a sight of one of the Little Owls here, but fortunately the male at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual place. He hates being photographed, and moved to a different branch seconds after I took this picture.

Two Carrion Crows buzzed a Grey Heron on the edge of the Serpentine. They are inveterate enemies, in spite of Aristotle's remark in book 9 of his History of Animals that they are friends.

There are now four broods of Coot chicks in the Italian Garden, one in each of the rectangular fountain pools. This is the latest, with six chicks.

Plants on the edge of the Peter Pan waterfront have been cut down, and the Coots nesting on the post have wasted no time in lining and decorating their nest with fresh leaves.

The single Red-Crested Pochard drake was at the Vista, still looking smart though most of the other ducks are going into eclipse.

The Mute Swans were on the nesting island with their cygnets, accompanied by a nesting Cooot, a female Tufted Duck and a Common Pochard drake.

The Mandarin on the Round Pond had managed to organise her wayward ducklings into a huddle on the gravel strip.

The Mallard family was on the edge of the pond, surrounded by an admiring crowd.

One of the Bar-Headed x Greylag Goose hybrids has come from St James's Park to the Serpentine to moult. It's three quarters Bar-Head and looks almost exactly like a pure bred one.

It was too cold and windy to be a good day for insects, and there was little out but hardy Buff-Tailed Bumblebees and Honeybees. They revolved ecstatically in the little flowers of a bramble, picking up all the pollen they could. They behave the same in single roses, and brambles are of the same family and have flowers like minature roses.

A Buff-Tail worked over the pink clover in the grass near Physical Energy.

One in the Rose Garden was trying to get into a tight double rose. It must have succeeded at least sometimes, as it visited several flowers on the bush.

Another was having an easier time on a foxtail lily.

On the stem below the flower, a Wren looked suspiciously at the camera.

Getting the Reed Warbler's number

Swifts zoomed over the Round Pond ...

... accompanied by House Martins (on the left here) and Sand Martins.

The Mandarin tried to keep her ducklings from straying ...

and one of the Mallard ducklings played with a ball.

A pair of Egyptian Geese with one gosling were preening together on the edge.

A pair of Mandarins preened at the Vista. The drake is a bit past his best but still quite presentable. In a couple of weeks he will have lost all his finery and look much like a female till next winter.

In the Italian Garden the unstoppable Coots with eight young were building yet another nest in the irises. It keeps them from fighting with the Coots in the other pools.

A young Moorhen lurked in the reeds on the lake below.

A Carrion Crow used a duckboard to dunk a bit of dry pizza crust.

The Reed Warbler was staying in the reeds, but from the pictures I took I managed to fill in the rest of the ring number: BLB1287. I will report this and see if I get an answer -- the last ring I reported on the Euring site didn't.

Just down the path a Blackbird sang and preened on a twig swaying in the wind. You can also hear a Wren scolding a Magpie, a Greenfinch and the inevitable shrieking Rose-Ringed Parakeets.

A Great Tit at Mount Gate ignored its shrieking fledgling for once and ate a pine nut itself.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee near the Physical Energy statue was having a hard time browsing on buttercups, because its weight made the flower tip over. This flower stayed up because it was resting on a leaf.

A patch of oxeye daisies at Peter Pan attracted a Tawny Mining Bee, Andrena fulva ...

... and two hoverflies, which I think are a Small Spot-Eye, Eristalinus sepulchralis ...

... and a European Drone Fly, Eristalis arbustorum.

On the other side of the statue a Holly Blue butterfly rested on a leaf.

A drizzly day

A Robin on top of the Rose Garden pergola sang while it waited for the gardener working below to turn up some worms for it. It's probably one of the two nesting pairs here.

At the southwest corner of the bridge, both parents were gathering insects and larvae for their young. The one in the first picture flew to my hand to add a pine nut to the collection.

A Great Tit fed a fledgling in the Flower Walk. 

A Blackbird sang on top of the corkscrew hazel, whose leaves are as twisted as the twigs.

The usual male Chaffinch turned up at the Serpentine Gallery and pestered me constantly for pine nuts ...

... while I was photographing the male Little Owl. It was drizzling and he was damp, but he is a tough creature and I've seen him out in the rain before.

The Reed Warbler in the Italian Garden reed bed was looking soggy too.

No owls to be seen at the Round Pond, where is was windy as well as wet. As I stood on the edge of the water a Pied Wagtail trotted up and ran past inches from my feet.

The two duck families were circling the pond rapidly.

For the second time in a week a pair of Common Terns have visited the Long Water. If only we had a proper raft for them to nest on.

One of the young Grey Herons from the fourth nest was in the next tree. It would have had to make a proper flight, though a short one, to get there.

The other two remained in the nest.

Two half-grown Coot chicks were preening on the Mute Swans' nesting island. 

The swans were in residence with their cygnets, but they left the Coot family alone. There's clearly some mutual benefit, but it's hard to say what it is.

The Huntress fountain is a valuable resource for the birds in the Rose Garden, which come here to drink and bathe. Today it was visited by a pair of Egyptian Geese.

Some hardy Buff-Tailed Bumblebees were out in the drizzle feeding on the little mauve flowers of the Lamb's Ears. This one was sensibly sheltering under a leaf.

In a dry interval a Caddis Fly came out behind the Lido. There are over 200 species, so it's impossible to know which this is.