Blackbird at work

A female Blackbird behind the Queen's Temple caught a worm easily, then dug frantically in the leaf litter. She seemed to be getting something: maybe she had found an ants' nest.

A Robin watched from a branch.

A Coal Tit sang loudly in a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

A Chiffchaff often sings by the leaf yard, usually at the top of a tall tree. But it came down for a moment and Ahmet Amerikali got a fine close-up picture of it.

He also saw a male Blackcap singing near Peter Pan ...

... and the Blue Tit at the foot of Buck Hill, which dashed into its nest hole carrying a feather, so he waited for it to come out and got it then.

A Starling shone in the sunlight on the edge of the Serpentine.

A female Magpie by the bridge fluttered her wings and called plaintively to her mate on a branch below, who was eating a peanut. He did fly up to give her a bit.

The two young Grey Herons from the first nest on the Serpentine island are now exploring the park, and were standing on the gravel strip in the Long Water.

It does look as if the heron on the new nest has eggs. It was sitting when I arrived ...

... then got up and poked in the bottom of the nest as if turning eggs ...

... and sat down again.

A heron at the boathouse watched as a Coot investigated a clump of sprouts thrown into the lake as part of the Nowruz festival, the Zoroastrians' celebration of their New Year at the spring solstice. The Coot didn't like them and soon went away.

The Coots on the Serpentine side of the bridge were busy building up their nest. The one in the nest hadn't finished arranging a twig when its mate came back with a leaf.

On the other side of the bridge a pair of Great Crested Grebes were building a nest under a branch of the collapsed weeping willow.

In the Italian Garden fountains, the Gadwall drake who is the dominant male in the odd trio was having a rest and the female Mallard was hungry, so she joined the Mallard drake in dabbling for food.

The single Egyptian gosling on the Serpentine had eluded the hungry Herring Gulls for another day.

A female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee climbed into a minature narcissus in the Rose Garden border ...

... and a worker Honeybee collected pollen from a grape hyacinth.

Little Owl on the warpath

Although it was a sunny day there was quite a strong wind, and I didn't expect to see a Little Owl. But as I went past the old sweet chestnut tree near the Serpentine there was a pair of Stock Doves flapping around and suddenly something brown shot out of a hole and attacked them. It was the female owl. She stood above the hole looking pleased with herself.

The young male Chaffinch who has appeared recently in Kensington Gardens ...

... was with the female in the Flower Walk and there was no sign of the old male. He is in a sad state with feet badly infected with the virus, and she may have deserted him in favour of a healthy young mate.

A Goldfinch looked down from a treetop behind the Queen's Temple ...

... and a Long-Tailed Tit perched on a lower twig.

A Great Tit waited in a camellia bush in the Flower Walk.

A Wren in the bushes by the Henry Moore sculpture stayed still for long enough to have its picture taken.

The Robins on the north edge of the Rose Garden are not yet on such intimate terms as the pair in the middle which I photographed yesterday. They are still at the stage where one stays in a bush ...

... while the other is on the ground, but at least they're tolerating each other.

Two Grey Herons uncomfortably close together on the gravel strip in the Long Water eyed each other with suspicion.

The three young herons from the second nest on the island were wandering around on the shore. They are still returning to the nest to be fed, but will soon have to find their own food.

There are now two Coot nests at the Mute Swans' nesting island on the Long Water.

A pair of swans were courting on the edge of the Serpentine.

The Egyptian Goose and her last gosling rested on the shore.

The Mandarins cruised past the island.

A Gadwall pair cropped algae at the edge. It's pleasing that we now seem to we now have a permanent population of these quiet well behaved ducks.

Two irresponsible dog owners arrived at the Vista at the same time and encouraged eight dogs to go into the water, scaring away the dark Mallard drake who had been feeding at the edge.

Sunshine showed off the carp in the Dell stream. They have a small world, bounded at one end by the small waterfall and at the other end by the grille where the stream goes underground on its way to the Thames just upstream of Chelsea Bridge.

Robins together in the Rose Garden

The Robin pair in the Rose Garden were together in a bush, with the female begging her mate to feed her. She will need him to do this when she's nesting. I gave him a pine nut, but the pair retreated into the back of the bush and I didn't get a picture of the exchange.

The male Blackbird was singing strongly, well hidden in a holly tree. He has to raise his voice as the Rose Garden is a noisy place, with competition from police sirens and helicopters, billionaires' sons roaring around in Ferraris from the showroom in Knightsbridge, and loud dreary rap from the Bluetooth speakers of the skaters in the Serpentine Road.

The Blackbird from the Dell was out on the lawn, hopping around in the grass looking for insects and worms.

The Green Woodpecker on Buck Hill called from a tree, as usual hard to see among the twigs but I finally got a picture of it preening.

While going round the tree for a clear shot I found a single Long-Tailed Tit ...

... and a Jay.

The wind had dropped, and the female Little Owl at the Round Pond was out in the horse chestnut tree.

The third brood of Grey Heron chicks on the island were frantically begging their parent to feed them.

One of the second brood was down on the shore of the island ...

... and the other two were back in the nest.

The young heron from last year was on the edge of the Dell stream, picking up a stick. The nesting instinct seems to set in early.

The pair of Mandarins cruised across the Vista ...

... and there was a single drake by the boathouses. You can see that the pattern of white stripes on his side is different.

A few minutes later I saw a pair near the island, but I'm pretty sure it was the first pair which had flown over from the Long Water.

The odd couple of the Gadwall drake and female Mallard were side by side in the Italian Garden. The spare Mallard drake was hanging around out of shot. He doesn't have much of a time, but the female has made her choice and there's nothing he can do about it.

The last Egyptian gosling on the Serpentine has made it through another day.

The male by the Henry Moore sculpture was sitting in the shade while his mate was nesting in a tree -- I haven't found where this is, as the dead tree they used in the past is now decayed and they have abandoned it. 

The Coots nesting on the Mute Swans' island in the Long Water were fussing around together on the edge. They are never molested by the belligerent swans, maybe because these have learnt that an angry Coot is a nuisance even if not a threat.

A male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee was making the most of the fading wallflowers in the Rose Garden.

Hybrid duck

An interesting duck was wandering on the shore by the boathouses, where it was photographed by Jon Ferguson. It's a Mallard x Gadwall hybrid.

The couple of the Gadwall drake and the female Mallard were in the Italian Garden as usual, with the spare Mallard drake hanging around. Will there be more of these hybrids?

The Mandarin pair were feeding on the edge of the Serpentine.

Tufted Ducks rested on the collapsed willow at the corner of the bridge.

The last surviving Egyptian gosling on the Serpentine is now growing fast, but it's still very far from being out of danger.

The Coots' nest on the submerged wire basket at the bridge is being rapidly enlarged.

One of the young Grey Herons from the east end of the island was on the shore under the nest, accompanied by two adults which are probably its parents.

Ahmet Amerikali found a male Blackcap near the Buck Hill shelter, the first one seen in the park this year. In past years we have had a few Blackcaps overwintering, but I didn't see any this winter and this one is almost certainly a recently arrived migrant.

So are the Chiffchaffs, of which there are plenty now. I saw this one singing in a tall tree when I went to look, unsuccessfully, for the Blackcap.

There was also a Long-Tailed Tit picking cobwebs off a tree trunk.

Snakeshead Fritillaries have come out on the ground below. I've never seen a white one here before.

Another good picture from Ahmet, a Wren singing near the Diana fountain.

Both the Coal Tits in the Dell came to collect pine nuts from the railings.

Tinúviel sent some fine pictures from Los Barruecos, a national park near Cáceres in Extremadura centred on some spectacular granite outcrops, with artificial lakes added so that it has become a bird reserve. Storks nest here on platforms provided for them.

One nest has a colony of Spanish Sparrows in its base.

There was a pair of Stonechats. This is the male ...

... and this is the female, perched on a holm oak twig.

Back to Hyde Park for a video of a Dark-Edged Bee Fly drinking nectar from a grape hyacinth in the Rose Garden. This peculiar creature, Bombylius major, is a fly, not a bee. It is a parasite of solitary bees, laying its eggs in their nest. Its larva eats the bee's own eggs and grubs.