The Great Black-Backed Gull was back on the posts opposite the Peter Pan statue. I waited in vain for half an hour for it to take off so that I could photograph its enormous wings, but it would not oblige and, after a bit of preening, it sat down on the post and went to sleep.

This was good news at least for four new Mallard duckings which were swimming about near the shore -- though ducklings would be a mere hors d'oeuvre to this vast gull before it went on to something more substantial, such as a pigeon.

The five Moorhen chicks on the Italian Garden also escaped its attention, and the three Great Crested Grebes were safe on their father's back.

The rowan trees on Buck Hill continue to attract birds. Here is one of the Mistle Thrushes that regularly visit this place, even at times of year when there are no berries.

A party of Mute Swans, driven off the Serpentine by the swimming race, tried to go under the bridge on to the Long Water. The single widower swan, who has reclaimed the whole of the Long Water after the swans with the seven cygnets were taken to Egham, immediately cruised down, wings raised in threat, and chased them back to the other side of the bridge.

An odd Canada Goose with a speckled face came to the Serpentine to moult but now been driven away to the Round Pond, along with a lot of other geese. The Canada--Greylag hybrids often have speckled faces, but this one seems to be a pure-bred Canada.