A Cormorant at the Serpentine island had caught a fish too large for it to swallow.

The bird picked it up at various angles, put it down and tried again for several minutes, but was obliged to give up. As far as I could see, the fish survived its mauling and swam away.

There are a few more Common Gulls as they arrive for the winter.

Their lustrous dark eyes give them a gentle look, but they are just as rapacious and quarrelsome as any other kind of gull, and give the smaller Black-Headed Gulls a very hard time when one of the latter has a piece of food.

There was a small crowd of Black-Headed Gulls around the willow tree next to the bridge, a sign that the Great Crested Grebe family were underneath it, sheltering from the gulls' raids.

The gulls' activity here has increased noticeably in the past few days. Perhaps it is because the grebe chicks are now large enough to eat bigger fish, and these present a better target for a swoop.

Here is the notorious Starling with the ring who dive-bombs me painfully when I am feeding the small birds at the leaf yard. Today he was at the Lido grabbing food off the tables as people took advantage of the sunny spells to have meals on the terrace.

This bird is several years old and bold as brass, and once he sees you have food he won't let you alone and can't be shooed away.

A Greylag Goose coming in to the Diana fountain headed straight for me on a collision course, and at the last moment nonchalantly hauled itself up to pass within inches of my head.

The female Little Owl was in the usual tree and as usual retreated hastily at the first sign of an approaching human.