Not much happening (apart from a UFO)

It was a misty, grey and uneventful day. There is no visible progress with the Grey Herons on the island. One of the parents was fussing in the upper nest, but there is still no sight of a chick ...

... and the heron in the nest at the east end was still doggedly sitting, now a whole month since they started.

The bird is clearly all right, since it was shifting around to get comfortable, but it's hard not to worry about what has happened to the eggs. I have always supposed that birds can hear a live chick in the egg in the later stages of gestation, and will give up if there's no sound, but I may be wrong about this.

One the posts below, a heron ignored a Cormorant striking an attitude.

This young heron by the bridge is as neat as can be, in marked contrast to the one I photographed yesterday, which was exactly the same age but looked as if it had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

A pair of Moorhens mooched around mildly on the edge of the Serpentine.

A Coot washed and preened.

A female Mallard was also preening. Compared to the gaudy drakes, females are very sober in their plumage, but they are beautifully marked.

The usual crew were in the Rose Garden. Since their home was destroyed I'm seeing a lot more of them, in part because they're finding it harder to get food and keener on being fed. The Robin came to my hand for the first time.

The Coal Tit pair remain very timid ...

... but the Blue Tits are now fearless and keep flying out.

The male Chaffinch perched in the lime hedge, waiting to catch a pine nut in midair.

The male Blackbird hauled up a larva in a flower bed. He is now confident about picking up raisins thrown to him.

Gardeners were digging in the shrubbery east of the Lido, and a Robin came out to check the newly turned earth for worms.

At the Italian Garden, a Great Tit in the reeds ...

... disturbed a pair of Wrens, which dashed into the dead iris leaves in one of the planters.

One of the Coal Tits at Mount Gate posed prettily in a dogwood bush.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention the UFO. At 9.50 pm the night before last Leessa, one of the bird rescue team, was walking along the south side of the Serpentine when something flew over the lake heading north and zigzagged about over the far bank. It looked exactly like a man in a jet suit and left a trail of smoke but, puzzlingly, was making no noise as you would expect from a jet suit -- and anyway, who has one? She took a picture on her phone.

Here is an enlarged detail.

A milder day

A milder day started Song Thrushes singing by the Henry Moore sculpture ...

... and the Speke obelisk.

A mixed flock of Long-Tailed Tits ...

... and Blue Tits bounced around in a tree at the southeast corner of the bridge ...

... checking the twigs  for small larvae.

There were also plenty of Blue Tits in the Rose Garden. It seems that their numbers are increasing slightly, though Great Tits will always be in the majority.

Also in the Rose Garden, the female Chaffinch ...

... and a Robin arrived to be fed.

They are hard to feed, since both will only take pine nuts thrown on the ground, which gets crowded with Feral Pigeons the moment you start.

The female Chaffinch in Kensington Gardens is now getting confident, and more adept at catching pine nuts thrown in the air.

The Robin by the Buck Hill shelter is easy to satisfy, as it comes at once to my hand.

An increasing number of Robins will do this, and today I had a new one by the Speke obelisk. I didn't photograph it because I didn't want to put it off.

Another Robin, in an olive tree by the Lido restaurant, chattered irritably at something that displeased it and flew off.

The little pots of tartare sauce served with fish and chips at the restaurant are much liked by Starlings. Here are two pots and two Starlings at work on them.

Also here, the giant flower pots have been planted with ornamental willow bushes that have put out pretty pink catkins.

The Grey Heron chick or chicks in the upper nest on the island still can't be seen over the high edge of the nest, but the noise of begging is getting louder every day. A parent attended to the nest.

There is no visible progress in the nest at the east end of the island, but a heron could be seen still sitting.

One of last year's young herons on the dead willow tree under the Italian Garden was looking remarkably tatty. To be fair, it was in the middle of preening.

The goddess on the Huntress fountain has to put up with all kinds of birds on her head, but a Herring Gull was an unusual load.

Roman statues placed outdoors used to have a meniscus, a little metal umbrella-hat, installed on their head to shield them from bird droppings. It would look very odd to us, but the Romans were used to it and didn't notice it. When statues are shown in Roman wall paintings the meniscus is usually omitted, but there is one painting, a forum scene, where it appears. Foolishly, when I saw a picture of this on the web I didn't save it and I can't find it now.

There seems to be just one Shoveller drake left on the lake. It was feeding at the Lido restaurant.

There are also a few on the Round Pond, but all the others have left.

The first daffodil

It was a very ordinary day, and really the only news is that the first daffodil has come out beside the Serpentine Road.

The male Chaffinch from the Rose Garden was here calling to his mate, who answered him from a place out of sight in the next tree.

Then I was followed all round the Rose Garden by him ...

... several Blue Tits ...

... the pair of Coal Tits ...

... and a dozen Great Tits. There were also heavy demands in the Flower Walk and at Mount Gate, where Blue Tits perched in the dogwood bush...

... and the Robin pair were hopping around on the ground below.

The Robin near the Buck Hill shelter also wanted a share. I am getting through serious quantities of pine nuts, but it would be a shame to fob them off with something cheaper.

There were Jays all the way round the Long Water ...

... and Carrion Crows on the marble fountain in the Italian Garden ...

... and the giant flower pots at the Lido restaurant. Fortunately these can be satisfied with peanuts.

The Grey Heron in the upper nest was attending to the chicks. I still haven't seen any here, and only the occasional clattering shows that anything is going on.

The heron in the nest at the east end of the island is still sitting.

Looking back at my pictures, I see that the first photograph of a bird sitting in this nest was taken on 22 December, 29 days ago. The normal gestation time for a Grey Heron is 25 or 26 days, but they start sitting as soon as the first egg is laid so that hatching is spread out over several days. However, something must already be happening here unless things have gone seriously wrong. Unlike the other nest this one is placed quite low, so any chicks should be visible fairly soon.

A Mute Swan took off from the east end of the Serpentine.

The trio of the Canada Goose, hybrid mate and the other hybrid were together at the Triangle.

When one bird starts preening others copy it, even those of a different species. Here are Canada and Egyptian Geese and Tufted Ducks at work together on the edge of the Serpentine.

The male Egyptian at the Henry Moore sculpture was waiting patiently in the grass. His mate comes out of her nest hole at sunset for a quick drink and feed, and he accompanies her down to the water.

Another obscure sticker that takes some research. Again, it comes from disgruntled football fans, in this case from Clermont-Ferrand in France, where their team has just been relegated from Ligue 1 to Ligue 2 after coming 18th out of the 18 teams in Ligue 1. Clermont-Ferrand is one of the oldest cities in France, founded in the 1st century BC and named Augustonemetum after the emperor Augustus. It's not clear, though, why the sticker shows it burning down.

Fighting Egyptians

Two pairs of Egyptian Geese fought beside the Serpentine, with the males wrestling and the females egging them on. They barged past the Sunday crowds of humans.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull who owns the landing stage at the Diana fountain patrolled the water around it, spotted an intruding gull, chased it away, and returned to the platform.

There are a lot of Grey Herons in the park at the moment, but still only two active nests. The nest with chicks was visited by a parent.

There has been no visible progress in the nest at the east end, with the heron still sitting on eggs. This is surprising, as sitting seemed to start not long after the first pair began, but the first pair's chicks hatched several weeks ago. Let's hope everything is all right. But it's typical of heron nests that you think nothing is going on, and then events surprise you.

The heron in the nest at the end of the Serpentine island is simply occupying the nest and hasn't even thought of breeding yet. I've only seen two birds in the nest once this year. But it had to have something to do so it pulled at a twig, hoping to break it off and add it to the nest.

A heron used the tall dead tree near the Serpentine Gallery as a lookout post.

The one under the Italian Garden must have heard a rustle in the reeds on the west side and peered in, hoping to find a rat.

Some Carrion Crows had found a large dead carp, rather decayed but they aren't fussy.

Magpies perched on the weathervane at the Lido restaurant, keeping an eye out for leftovers on an empty table.

The small birds were crowded together in the clump of bushes on the Rose Garden lawn, as hungry as ever. There were three Blue Tits ...

... two Coal Tits ...

... both the Chaffinch pair on he ground ...

... and a Robin on a stem in the nearby rose bed.

Starlings by the Queen's Temple foraged among fallen leaves.

A long row of Coots lined the Serpentine by the Triangle.

Numbers have been rising steadily for decades. There are now over 300 and the west end of the Serpentine is becoming a Coot lake (which raises the idea of a very silly ballet).

The two that nest on the posts at Peter Pan haven't yet begun their thankless task of nesting over and over again and losing their chicks to the gulls. They were resting on a fallen branch.

As darkness began to fall after a dim day the Little Owl came up just high enough to see out of her hole and I got a very feeble photograph, which however is better than not seeing her at all.