Young Grey Herons on the loose

The two young Grey Herons in the upper nest on the island were now both out, and the nest was occupied by their parents. The young ones will still be returning to be fed for some time, they are by no means independent yet.

One of the three younger ones in the east nest had made a short hop into another nest. It's only beginning to fly but I'm sure it will get back when it wants to. 

One of last year's young admired its reflection in the Dell stream ...

... where a Mandarin drake  was preening on the edge.

The previously seen Mandarin drake was in the usual place at the Triangle. The one in the Dell is not the same, as it has a different pattern of white stripes on its side.

In other duck news, Jon Ferguson tells me that the Gadwall drake and his female Mallard partner have been together for some time, and have been seen in Finsbury Park over five miles to the northeast. The Mallard drake which is the third member of the trio was with them in the Italian Garden, but it only plays a minor role.

Trios are not uncommon. There is also the pair of the Canada Goose and the Canada x Greylag hybrid, where another hybrid, evidently a sibling, is always with them. They were by the Triangle.

The Egyptian goslings on the Serpentine are now down to three.

The Egyptian pair on the Round Pond still have eight of their original nine.

Some silly person had given a pair of Mute Swans some daffodils. One pecked listlessly at the flower and abandoned it.

A Blue Tit pecked leaf buds in a tree at the foot of Buck Hill. The buds are full of sweet sap, which makes them palatable.

The Coal Tit pair in the Dell came out for their daily treat.

The female Chaffinch in the Flower Walk accompanied her mate all the way from there to the Round Pond demanding pine nuts thrown in the air for them to catch.

A Wren was bouncing around in the trees at the northwest corner of the bridge.

A Jay waited for a peanut in the clump of alder trees by the Italian Garden.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker looked for insects under loose bark in the crowded branches of the enormous Caucasian Elm tree in the Rose Garden.

It looks as if the Little Owls at the Serpentine Gallery will have to nest somewhere else. A pair of Stock Doves have taken their hole. This often happens to Little Owls.

A curiosity: Jorgen saw a Pied Wagtail in Kensington High Street running around fearlessly between the feet of the shopers, and photographed it on his phone.

You do sometimes see bold streetwise Pied Wagtails, especially in places where there are cheap snack bars that generate rubbish and attract insects for the birds to hunt. There was one in Kensington Church Street in 2012 that was so confident it even ran around in the moving traffic, sure of its ability to leap out of the way. It would come and take little bits of cheese thrown on the pavement.

The persistent Fieldfare

The one and only Fieldfare is staying on the Parade Ground for much longer than expected. It has been here since the beginning of February, and seems perfectly content to be alone. There are plenty of insects and worms for it in the newly laid turf.

Now that the Coal Tits have started singing you realise that there are quite a lot of them in the park. This is one of a pair in the Flower Walk near Queen's Gate ...

... and there is another pair farther along at the back of the Albert Memorial.

Also in the Flower Walk, a Great Tit perched in cherry blossom.

Several Goldfinches were twittering in the treetops along the east side of the Long Water. There are alder trees here which they like, but the hanging fruit makes it hard to see them and you can only get pictures when they visit another tree.

The familiar Robin pair in the Rose Garden were together in a hawthorn. They'll probably need to nest outside the garden, as so much of their former habitat has now been destroyed.

A Wren peeped out from under a bush.

A Pied Wagtail looking for insects was clinging to steep slope of the stone kerb of a fountain pool in the Italian Garden.

It did a circular tour of the pool.

A Starling enjoyed a bathe at the edge of the Round Pond.

Pigeon Eater and his mate have been together a lot recently. Today they were on the roof of the Dell restuarant. I suspect they nest here every year, but the odd concave shape of the roof makes it impossible to see from the ground. They have certainly bred somewhere more than once and their young have been seen pestering them on the lake.

A Grey Heron at the island balanced on a precariously thin twig. These large birds are much lighter than they look, typically 2½ to 3 lb, a bit more than 1 kg.

I think the top nest in the middle of the island, above and to the left of this heron, is still a going concern. It can only be seen from steeply below, so you have no way of telling what's going on it it.

The two pairs of Great Crested Grebes at the east end of the Serpentine were shouting at each other and displaying, but stayed just far enough apart to avoid a confrontation.

The Coots' nest south of Peter Pan is now an imposing structure. So far I haven't been able to see eggs in any of the nests, but it's still early.

Sadly but inevitably, the Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine are down to five goslings.

The Gadwall drake in the Italian Garden scrambled out of the water to join his Mallard friend on the kerb. The Mallard drake which is also here doesn't seem to object to the liaison.

A changeable day

It was a day of sunshine and showers, including two hailstorms. When the first and worse one had died down to a drizzle, the Robin from the yew hedge in the Flower Walk came out for a pine nut ...

... and so did a Coal Tit in the corkscrew hazel.

Another Coal Tit sang as it searched for insects in a tree at the foot of Buck Hill.

A Great Tit perched in viburnum blossom by the Big Bird statue.

A Blue Tit at Mount Gate was between a forsythia bush and a flowering currant.

Two Long-Tailed Tits preened in the bushes at the Triangle. This is the only time they stay in one place for more than a couple of seconds.

One of the pair of Robins in the Rose Garden was waiting on a bench.

A Wood Pigeon strolled through flowers by the Albert Memorial.

A Carrion Crow perched on a silly installation outside the Serpentine Gallery, a dead tree with large stones balanced on it. The thing has taken a great deal of work, as the tree had to be hollowed out and a steel frame installed to support the stones.

A Magpie in the drizzle had a background of yellow gorse blossom.

A young Herring Gull ate an apple core, and seemed to be enjoying it.

The three young Grey Herons shuffled around as they stood with a parent in the nest at the east end of the island.

A heron had evicted a Coot from a nest opposite Peter Pan and was using it as a fishing platform.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine had caught a large perch.

It struggled to swallow the fish till another grebe snatched it and carried it off, but I'm sure that one couldn't swallow it either. The thief can't have been its mate, no grebe would ever do that to its mate. There are two pairs in this part of the lake, constantly at odds.

A pair of Egyptian Geese have brought out seven new goslings on the Serpentine. They were on the shore at the Triangle.

The Gadwall drake and the female Mallard are still together in the Italian Garden.

Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery again

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery looked down from the broken top of the old chestnut tree where the pair has nested in previous years. They may have to find another place this year, as the Carrion Crows seem set to reuse their last year's nest in this tree. He is very small even by the standards of male Little Owls, but has the most tremendous eyebrows.

There seem to be more Pied Wagtails. Perhaps some have been driven south by the cold weather. This is one of two on the north shore of the Serpentine ...

... and there were also two on the Vista. One reached down ...

... and came up with a small larva.

Sunlit Starlings hunted insects by the leaf yard until put to flight by a passing dog.

The familiar Robin was waiting here, though we had trouble with divebombing Starlings. You simply can't start feeding these, as they will never leave you alone if you do.

The Robin in the Rose Garden stared fiercely at the camera which was delaying delivery of his pine nuts.

Both the Coal Tits were waiting ...

... and so was one in the Dell, looking impatient.

The Long-Tailed Tits were busy at the northwest corner of the bridge.

At the other end of the bridge there was a female Chaffinch I don't think I've seen before, rather dark in colour. This is definitely not the mate of the male that chases me around Kensington Gardens.

A Carrion Crow had been bathing in the marble fountain in the Italian Garden.

A pair of Magpies perched together in a nearby tree ...

... and three Jays followed me down the east side of the Long Water.

There is a second pair of Coots nesting in the Italian Garden. The irises in the planters are growing up fast and will soon give both nests good cover, though Coots do trend to rip up the plants around their nests.

The Mandarin drake was back again, standing uner the small willow at the corner of the Triangle to avoid being disturbed by passers by. While some of them may give him food, his fantastic plumage gets him more attention than he likes.

A squirrel sniffed for bulbs in a flower bed in the Rose Garden, founds a small one, and ate it. Quite a lot of bulbs are poisonous. I wonder if they can distinguish these, or do they just have a high resistance?

The Albert Memorial was sunlit against a stormy sky.