Friday 26 May 2017

The Mute Swans who nested on the raft near the Serpentine outflow have seven cygnets -- I missed one yesterday.


There are now 21 cygnets on the lake. These are the ones from the small island in the Long Water -- the family had come over toe Peter Pan to tout for food from the visitors.


And this is the family with four, taking it easy in the shade of the island.


There is another family with five on the Serpentine, not shown here.

The mood of unbridled reproduction had got into the other swans, and two of them were courting near the Dell restaurant.


The Egyptian Goose family near the bridge are constantly out in the open, on one side of the lake or the other, and have done well to keep three goslings.


This pale Greylag is one of the regulars who come to the Serpentine to moult during June.


The Greylag goslings were diving, which they seem to do just to amuse themselves.


A pair of Red-Crested Pochards were hanging around at the edge of the Vista.


On the other side of the Vista, there were eight Grey Herons on the gravel bank.


The Great Crested Grebes at the east end of the Serpentine had abandoned their attempts to build a nest against the raft, and were cruising around together ...


... and diving for fish.


The Coot chick from the nest on the basket near the bridge, having miraculously survived the gulls, is now quite big. One of its parents was feeding it a damselfly.


This is a Red-Eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas) on one of the Italian Garden ponds.


Both the Little Owls at the leaf yard were out on the chestnut tree. This is the female, whom we have not seen for a while, and may be sitting on eggs by now.


And this is the male.

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