The Black Swan, who has trashed much of the vegetation on two rafts with his incessant nest building, had moved on to a third one nearer the Dell restaurant terrace and was ripping that up too.

However, when his girlfriend cruised by he forgot about it and plunged into the water to follow her.

A pair of Mute Swans had been mating, and afterwards did their standing display, in almost the same attitude as dancing Great Crested Grebes.

The grebes at the island are well settled on their nest. It is an ideally secluded spot.

The upper one of the two Grey Heron nests on the island had both birds in it again.

It was impossible to see what was going on in the lower nest. A sitting heron here is visible only when it lifts it head up.


Some of the female Tufted Ducks have quite large white patches on their face. These, as well as the two female Pochard-Tufted Duck hybrids, are often mistaken for Scaups.

They have yellow eyes like Scaups, while the hybrids have orange eyes. But note the absolutely plain colour of the back, without the faint vermiculated pattern of a female Scaup, and the wide black 'nail' -- the tip of the bill, which in a Scaup is quite narrow.

Several Treecreepers were singing their faint little song in various places.

The Robins were singing full blast.

In the early afternoon it was warm enough for a Blackbird to sunbathe.

The sunlight had brought out one of the Little Owls near the Albert Memorial, which gave me a sleepy look before realising it was only another photographer and nothing to worry about.

But the Little Owl near the Henry Moore remains suspicious, and stared down intently.