Cold and wet

A cold wet day kept people out of the park. The Moorhen family had the run of the Italian Garden fountains. There's a pair and three grown-up young from last year.

The Mute Swans could graze in peace on the grassy back at the back of the Lido. The Black Swan was with them, well behaved for once.

The boss swan and his mate thought it wasn't wet enough, so cruised about under the waterspouts on the edge of the Italian Garden.

A Great Crested Grebe yawned at the east end of the Serpentine.

Despite the weather, a tree in the North Flower Walk has decided that it's cherry blossom time.

The advance party of hungry small birds in the Rose Garden is coming out farther and farther. A Great Tit was waiting on a rope in front of the daffodils lining the Serpentine Road.

Another perched in dogwood blossom on the north side of the garden.

Inside, one of many Blue Tits arrived on a dripping hawthorn twig ...

... and one of the Coal Tit pair was in a rose bush.

A Coal Tit at Mount Gate successfully got a pine nut from the ground.

The male Robin ...

... and his mate were only slightly damp, as they had been sheltering in the bushes.

Jackdaws cropped up all along the way. One stood on a sign by the leaf yard ...

... and tthere were at least a dozen along the Serpentine Road.

A Jay was impatient behind the Albert Memorial.

A white Feral Pigeon in the Flower Walk looked strangely ominous, like a marble version of the Maltese Falcon.

The female Pied Wagtail glanced up as her mate flew over her at Fisherman's Keep, and a moment later took off and followed him.

Pigeon Eater had nothing to do, as the pigeons were sheltering under the overhanging roof of the Dell restaurant. He stepped off the kerb to go for a little cruise.

Pigeon Eater asserts himself

The approach of the nesting season has made Pigeon Eater more aggressive, as it has other birds. He called loudly ...

... and chased off the gulls on his patch, including the small Black-Headed Gulls which he usually doesn't bother with.

When a bird starts preening, the others around it tend to copy it, even if they're different species. A Gadwall pair started off a Black-Headed Gull, and then another gull arrived and couldn't help joining in.

The Grey Heron pair were standing together on the nest at the west end of the Serpentine island. One preened, the other adjusted the nest. They don't need to sit continuously on the eggs, which are quite large and stay warm for several minutes.

The heron at the northwest corner of the bridge preened on a branch.

A Coot had a vigorous wash and a flap to settle its feathers.

A Moorhen had got into one of the new reed beds through a loose bit of plastic netting. The protective covers on the floating rafts are not up to the job and are all squashed by the heavy Mute Swans walking over them.

The Black Swan was following 4GIQ as usual. When they saw me they came over for some sunflower hearts.

There was a pair of swans on the nesting basket east of the Lido, but it never seems to be the same pair twice. The male here is 4GIX and the female has only a metal ring, not one of Bill Haines's orange plastic ones.

The pair of Egyptian Geese at Peter Pan often claim territory from the sawn-off black poplar tree at the side of the waterfront. The trees where they choose to noisily claim ownership are never the ones where they actually nest. Shouting there might attract a predator.

There were two Pied Wagtails on the edge of the Serpentine at Fisherman's Keep, amd I think one was the usual female's mate, though I didn't get close enough to be sure of its sex. This is the female, distinguishable by two dark streaks across her left shoulder.

A Carrion Crow in the Dell was plotting a deed without a name.

The small birds in the Rose Garden know roughly when I will arrive and have taken to waiting on the approach and coming for pine nuts before I even get into the gate. This Blue Tit was in a cedar on the north side of the garden ...

... and there was also a Coal Tit. This is the one of the pair that comes to my hand, and it has little white specks above its eyes.

They other doesn't. It was on a tree inside the garden.

There are still no Redwings on the mud in the Parade Ground, or indeed anything interesting. Tom sent a fine picture of a Redwing eating berries at Rainham Marshes.

The male Robin at Mount Gate was on the railings in front of his dogwood bush ...

... and the female looked up from the path.

A soggy start to February

It was a drizzly day with outbreaks of heavier rain. Visitors sheltered in the Italian Garden loggia.

Thrushes welcome rain, which brings up worms. A Song Thrush near the leaf yard was singing cheerfully in a treetop.

A tall conifer on the south side of the Flower Walk near the Queen's Gate crossing -- I'm not sure whether it's a Western Red Cedar or a Lawson's Cypress -- gives good shelter to small birds. A Coal Tit ...

... and a Blue Tit emerged to collect pine nuts.

Another Blue Tit ...

... and a Great Tit were waiting in a camellia bush behind the Albert Memorial.

This isn't one of the regular Robins. It perched on a stem in the Flower Walk before coming down to pick up some pine nuts from the ground.

A Jay by the Henry Moore sculpture was expecting a peanut.

The female Pied Wagtail skittered about near the boathouses.

Pigeon Eater has been very close to his mate for several days. It seems much too early for them to start breeding but everything is running early this year, started by the warm autumn and unstoppable in spite of recent cold weather.

The Grey Heron sitting in the nest at the west end of the island got up to turn the eggs.

A high nest towards the west end is receiving a lot of attention at the moment. This isn't the one with the chicks in it. Those could be heard too.

A Great Crested Grebe at the east end of the Serpentine called to its mate.

The boss Mute Swan and his new mate were waiting at the Vista to see if anyone would feed them, but on a rainy day there were few people. They took advantage of damp feathers to have a thorough preen.  In the background you can hear the Song Thrush shown in the video above.

Swans fed on the grassy bank at the back of the Lido swimming area.

Shovellers were scooping busily on the Long Water.

The immature drake on the Serpentine never joins them, and perhaps doesn't know they are there. He has already got a green head but will have to wait till next year for the rest of his finery.

Return of the Peregrines

The Peregrine pair were back on the barracks tower. Although I had seen the male here a few times in recent months I hadn't seen his new mate since July, and thought she had deserted him. She looks to be the same bird.

The Grey Herons on the nest at the west end of the island were changing places sitting on the eggs. The one that had been sitting flew off to catch some fish. When the heron sits down it can't be seen from this angle, so you have to go round the tree to get a shot through the branches.

A heron stood in the variegated holly tree at the northwestern corner of the bridge. A few years ago a pair started nesting here, the only nest away from the colony on the island, but nothing came of it and they haven't tried again.

The heron that fishes on the ramp at the Lido shook out its huge wings.

Pigeon Eater and his mate, both now in full breeding plumage, were side by side on the Dell restaurant roof for the second day running. They aren't usually so close. I wish I could find out whether they nest on the roof, but you simply can't see from anywhere on the ground.

A pair of Herring Gulls at the Lido were also looking smart with their fresh white heads.

The Mute Swans 4GZF and 4FUW displayed on the shore nearby.

Cormorants are still fishing under the Italian Garden, though they have made such a thorough job of eating available fish that there's not much left. Ahmet Amerikali found one with a very small catch that it wouldn't have bothered with a month ago.

The Pied Wagtail hunting on the edge of the Serpentine has seen me photographing her so often that she isn't worried any more. She ran past under my feet.

Jackdaws gathered on the slope above the boat hire building, waiting for peanuts.

Three Oriental Sweet Box bushes, Sarcococca orientalis, in the Rose Garden are filling the air with fragrance. They attracted a Blue Tit ...

... a Great Tit ...

... and a hardy but elusive Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, which wouldn't come out for a proper shot and soon buzzed off.

The usual male Chaffinch was in the flower bed below.

There are clumps of tiny Petticoat Daffodils, Narcissus bulbocodium.

A Coal Tit in the corkscrew hazel in the Dell was poised to whizz down to the railings for a pine nut.

The male Robin at Mount Gate came to my hand for the first time.

The female stayed on the railings.

By the time I get to Mount Gate on my usual round in winter the light is beginning to fail, and in order to get reasonable pictures it's necessary to reduce the shutter speed as low as possible. This makes for difficulty when using a 600mm lens at full zoom, and you have to depend on the stabilization of the camera to avoid getting a picture blurred by shake. There is a popular rule that you shouldn't go lower than the length of the lens, so that the slowest speed for a 500mm lens would be 1/500 second. That is quite impractical, and this picture was taken at 1/125 second. Some of the shots do get a bit smudged at this speed, but you can take lots and select the sharpest.