The Black Swan was at the east end of the Serpentine, paying great attention to the young Mute Swan I have been describing as 'the girlfriend's brother', but it is becoming plain that this is a female swan, and now she will be called 'girlfriend number two'. He was displaying and calling, and she seemed quite receptive to his advances.

The ex-girlfriend was at the other end of the lake by herself, perhaps looking a bit sad. It seems that it was he who dumped her, for unknown reasons. But over the past a few days a swan of her own kind has been taking an interest in her, and perhaps love will blossom again. Mute Swans mate for life, no doubt after a bit of experimental flirting.

So do Carrion Crows. A pair just up the hill seemed very fond of each other.

And also Great Crested Grebes. The pair at the bridge were building their nest again -- or at least what passes for nest building with grebes, which is to dump weed and twigs vaguely on top of a submerged branch until by chance some of it sticks.

I don't know about the love life of Gadwalls, but they usually go around in pairs and are much less aggressively lustful than Mallards. There was a pair beside the Dell restaurant, and here is the female looking for food among some floating leaves.

One of the Grey Heron nests on the island was occupied by an Egyptian Goose.

However, the one nest that seems to be in active use still had the usual heron standing in it.

The muddy waste covering most of the Parade Ground is covered with birds looking for worms and insects, mostly gulls and crows and, here, Starlings, which seemed to be finding a lot of food.

There was also a pair of Pied Wagtails dashing around.

A dozen Rose-Ringed Parakeets were on the ground near the leaf yard. They don't go on the ground much, and it was not clear what had attracted them. But the picture shows that they were eating small fluffy things that had fallen off a tree.

The Herring Gulls' playground on the south side of the Serpentine had three young gulls amusing themselves. One had a stone, but that is a common toy for them. Another had picked up a wooden wedge.

And a third was playing with a tennis ball, which it could only just grasp with its beak at full stretch. It rolled interestingly when dropped, and was clearly a success.