This morning the London Natural History Society had a bird walk in the park, and I did my best to guide them around the local sights. We managed to see almost all the more interesting birds except for the Little Owls, though Paul Turner had had a brief glimpse of the female looking out of her nest hole in the chestnut tree near the leaf yard.

The male Tawny Owl didn't disappoint us.

A Little Grebe also appeared momentarily on the east side of the Long Water near the Vista. Here, in a distant shot taken across the lake, it nips smartly past two Mallards which were moving to chase it away.

A Dunnock was singing in the Rose Garden, so intent on his song that he was quite approachable, most unusual for such a shy bird.

There is a Nuthatches' nest in a tall beech tree at the southwest corner of the leaf yard. Here one of them is leaving the nest hole, which is in the top of the scar of a broken-off branch just behind the bird's left foot.

The male of the pair has been singing from the top of this tree or an adjacent one for several days, without which we wouldn't have noticed the nest.

The floating reed bed in the Serpentine, still moored offshore, has attracted a horde of Mute Swans which have already broken the wire mesh surround to make it easier to get in and out.

At the top of the Parade Ground, a Mistle Thrush and a Feral Pigeon were sharing a bath.