Blackbirds

A Blackbird sang and was answered by another in a plane tree by the South Carriage Drive.

A female rummaged in fallen leaves in the scrubby patch east of the Lido.

A Song Thrush sang against another near the Italian Garden, but I couldn't record them because the leaf yard is being remade and is full of noisy earthmoving machinery.

The unattached Robin at Mount Gate posed against pink cherry blossom. It's beginning to look tatty. Maybe it does have a mate somewhere, but I've seen no evidence of that.

The pair of Robins with the young one were scurrying about under a large acanthus and I still haven't been able to get a picture.

A Blue Tit was furiously impatient at being photographed instead of fed, bouncing around and shouting. This added to the delay, but I finally got one hasty shot and fed it.

A Great Tit was waiting in a hawthorn near Temple Gate, but it stayed still and so got fed much more quickly.

A Carrion Crow perched on one of the new bombastic notices about 'Wonderful Woodlands'. The park management seems to be getting these written by an advertising agency, or possibly by Grok instructed to write puffery.

A pair of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls were moaning affectionately at each other at the Triangle. Their calls are lower pitched than those of Herring Gulls, and you can tell which is which without seeing them.

The Great Crested Grebes that were beginning to nest under the collapsed willow by the bridge were frightened away when a large branch fell off the tree. However, it was at the other side of the tree and their nest site is intact, and now they are coming back to it.

A pair of grebes harassed the Coot nesting under the Dell restaurant balcony, making it clear that they wanted to take over the nest. A grebe can always beat a Coot in the water, but usually it is the persistence of the Coot that allows it to win these disputes in the end.

The four Coot chicks from the nest under the Italian Garden are growing well. Two were out on the water with a parent ...

... and two preening in the nest.

The Black Swan gestured and hooted to his Mute mate 4GIQ through the gap they have turn in the fence of the nesting raft. Let's hope the thing doesn't collapse competely before they have finished with it.

Good news from Jenna: the widow of the boss swan, 4DTT, has paired up with the widower 4HDW of a pair that were beginning to nest of the gravel strip when the female was killed by a fox. They are now the only two swans on the Long Water, and are starting to nest. Unfortunately the site is not on the safe nesting island but in the reeds under the Italian Garden, exposed to the foxes. This place is very difficult to see clearly, but I'll do what I can about getting a picture.

The Canada Geese with three goslings are usually seen near the bridge. They must have to go right up to the Vista to find grass, and would have to wait for dusk before this dog-infested area was clear.

Buff-Tailed Bumblebees are now quite numerous and beginning to take over from the Hairy-Footed Flower Bees. A very small one was browsing on the green alkanet at Temple Gate ...

... and another was covered in pollen as it explored a wallflower in the Rose Garden.

Allium is a popular bee plant, and several Honeybees were feeding on it. Apparently this doesn't make the honey taste of onions.

I think this insect on the stonework in the Italian Garden is a Long-Legged Fly, Liancalus virens. It's bigger and leggier than the numerous similar-looking midges.

Robin success

The Robin pair at Mount Gate have at least one fledgling out of the nest, though I haven't yet got a picture of it as it kept lurking behind plants. There may have been a predator overhead, as its father was looking up nervously from the railings.

There was a Jay in a nearby tree, but the Robins seem calm about those and it wasn't looking that way.

A pair of Long-Tailed Tits bounced around in the bushes.

Most of the nest boxes in Kensington Gardens are 30 years old and haven't been cleaned or repaired for a very long time, but the tits are still using them. A Great Tit looked out of a box near the Henry Moore sculpture.

A ginger Feral Pigeon by the Italian Garden had an odd hooked beak, giving it a predatory look.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual lime tree, and as usual hard to see through the leaves.

A Grey Heron stalked up and down the edge of the Dell restaurant terrace, hoping to be thrown a snack ...

... but it was Pigeon Eater who got the tortilla chips.

A Moorhen ate spilt soft ice cream.

The Great Crested Grebes' nest on the chain at the island is still intact, though an easterly wind makes a moored boat drift up against it -- fortunately not quite so far as to knock it over.

A grebe approached the Mute Swan 4GIQ's nesting basket to exchange hostile glances with the Coot. The swans have already brought down some of the flimsy side of the basket and it won't last long.

After weeks of shilly-shallying a pair of Mute Swans has finally settled down on the nest basket east of the Lido, which is even more broken though you can't see this through the reeds. The male was patrolling the water as the female sat on her eggs.

There is also a pair of swans nesting in the reeds under the Italian Garden. There is no good view of the site from any angle. One of the local Coot pair approached the male officiously and was sent packing.

The four Egyptian goslings at the Triangle are hanging on and beginning to grow.

A Mandarin drake rested on the rock in the Dell stream.

A fox was asleep in the long grass south of the Vista.

In the Rose Garden a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee revolved ecstatically in a pink rugosa rose. The dull thump from the Bluetooth speakers of the nearby rollerbladers suits the performance in a way, so I haven't edited it off.

A Harlequin Ladybird was in another rose looking for greenfly, though it had missed the one at the top left of the picture.

Doves of war

The bold Song Thrush by the Henry Moore sculpture was in the same place collecting larvae and insects for the nestlings. If you stay still and don't do anything to alarm it, it will hop around right by your feet.

At the other side of the lawn a pair of Robins were both picking up caterpillars for their nest.

A Whitethroat sang in a treetop near the Speke obelisk, too high for a good picture.

Two Stock Doves fought on a dead tree below.

Great Tits wanting pine nuts get furiously impatient in the five seconds it takes for a picture. They live so much faster than us that it's probably like a quarter of an hour to them.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out in the late afternoon, even more obscured by leaves.

A Grey Wagtail was collecting insects for nestlings on the edge of the Dell restaurant  terrace. The nest is at the other end of the Serpentine by the bridge, but wagtails travel fast and widely and you can see the same ones anywhere on the edge of the water and beyond.

A pair of Pied Wagtails hunted midges at Peter Pan.

The number of terrapins in a row on the dead tree opposite the waterfront has now gone up to five.

The Grey Heron sitting in the nest at the east end of the island stood up to stretch its cramped legs and have a preen.

Both the Great Crested Grebes were at their nest on the chain below. It looks as if they are now sitting properly, but I haven't yet had a chance to see eggs.

The male Mute Swan 4FYY was guarding the nest while his mate 4FUF took a turn on the water to feed.

The Egyptian Geese at the Lido are down to four goslings, but these are now growing fast and have a good chance of survival.

A Honeybee on the green alkanet at Temple Gate had remarkably tattered wings but was still flying perfectly well.

Narcissus Bulb Flies ...

... and the unattractively named Flesh Flies are now abundant in the Rose Garden.

Readers will know that I am no fan of cultivated plants, but it has to be admitted that some spectacular roses are appearing.

Bold Song Thrush

A remarkably bold Song Thrush collected worms and caterpillars for its nestlings in a tree near the Henry Moore sculpture.

A Chiffchaff sang in a tree near the Speke obelisk ...

... and so did a Greenfinch on a dead branch of the variegated holly tree between the bridge and the Vista.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery came out in the late afternoon, causing a great deal of running around the lime tree to find the least obstructed view. Luckily he was dozing and didn't mind.

There was a distant view of a Sparrowhawk circling over Buck Hill. It was looking down on a flock of Rose-Ringed Parakeets running for cover.

A Jackdaw at Peter Pan collected fibres of rotten wood to make a comfortable lining for its nest in a hole.

A Red-Eared Slider terrapin basked farther along the same fallen tree.

A Carrion Crow had won a bit of a hamburger at the Lido restaurant and was dunking it in the lake.

The first young Pied Wagtail I've seen this year perched on a buoy at the Lido. Judging by the way it was running around, it was already catching midges for itself.

Ahmet Amerikali was at Rainham Marshes, where he got a picture of a singing Sedge Warbler ...

... and a flying Little Egret.

A Grey Heron caught a carp in the Italian Garden.

A Mandarin drake was about to launch himself on the Serpentine.

An interesting picture from an anoymous contributor, a hybrid Gadwall x Mallard drake on the Serpentine. There are at least two of these in the park, and the other one has a green head.

A Grey Squirrel took its chances with the ferocious spikes on a cockspur hawthorn tree at Mount Gate to eat the blossom.

Female Garden Spiders only eat their mates occasionally, but it's best to be careful. This pair was in the reeds by the bridge.

The was a little Andrena mining bee in a wallflower in the Rose Garden, too covered with pollen to allow a guess at the species.

A Harlequin ladybird perched on a leaf. The stem was thickly covered with insect eggs, proving a good meal for it.