The Hobbies were in the same place for the third day running. The young one was perched at the top of the tallest plane tree waiting to be fed. Here one of the parents approaches holding something in its talons, which from close examination of the original photograph looks like a dragonfly.

The young Greylag Geese on the Serpentine are now almost fully grown and adult in appearance.

Apart from a generally new and fresh look, the differences are that the young bird's feet are still orange rather than pink, and it lacks the adult's narrow white line along its side where the folded wing meets the body, caused by a row of white-edged feathers.

The four young Mallards on the pond in the Italian Gardens are also now quite large and adult-looking, and are crusing around in a gang like teenagers of many species.

The young Great Crested Grebes near the island are growing fast. Here they apeal noisily to the father for food while he languidly raises a wing to unfurl one of his large feet. Their mother was busily fishing for them near the boathouse.

These grebes will retain their juvenile stripy faces for some time, with traces of stripes lasting through the winter. In early spring they will grow their first set of adult plumage, but will have a rather sparse crest in their first adult year.

The number of Cormorants is steadily rising, and on most days now you can see half a dozen. When the fish hatched last year  have grown a bit more we may see one of their large fishing parties, where as many as 20 of them cruise up and down the lake in line abreast, hoovering up their prey with such greed and efficiency that it almost wipes out the population of medium-sized fish.