The Little Owls near the leaf yard haven't been visible for several days, but today the female flew into the chestnut tree just uphill from the leaf yard and perched on her favourite branch.

Possibly they have taken to spending their days in the horse chestnut just across the path, where they can be quite hard to see.

One of the Little owlets near the Albert Memorial could be seen in the horse chestnut tree they have been using for the past week.

The leaves on this tree are looking autumnal well before time. Like most of the horse chestnuts in the park, the tree has been badly hit by leaf miner moth.

There are still plenty of Mistle Thrushes on Buck Hill, both on the grass and in the rowan trees.

The berries are not yet full ripe. The thrush was picking out the withered ones, which are sweeter because the evaporation of the water has concentrated the sugar. This is the same principle as is used in making sweet types of German wine such as Trockenbeerenauslese and Frostwein, where the grapes are left to wither on the vine. In the second of these the grapes are actually allowed to freeze in the early winter frosts, and crack to release water when they thaw. Birds also like berries that have been frozen.

The family of Blackbirds was again on the patch of wood chips under the plane trees near the Physical Energy statue. The young birds are now looking for their own food, and this one had dug quite a large hole in the chips to get at the insects and worms underneath.

A Feral Pigeon was enjoying a shower in the marble fountain in the Italian Garden.

The Great Crested Grebe family from the nest on the island had come out in front of it, where they could be seen from the shore. The chicks were picking thistledown from the wire cages of water plants, believing it to be feathers, which they eat to wrap up spiky fishbones.

A couple of years ago I saw a boy feeding bits of bread to a grebe chick, which it took because it thought they were feathers. It soon realised its mistake and stopped.

Two of the chicks practised the head-shaking greeting. The instinct for grebe cermonies is hard-wired, but they have to be practised to get them right.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black Backed Gull was sharing his latest kill with his mate. He is on the right of the picture.

The Tufted duckling was in the usual place with its mother.

The Black Swan came under the bridge on to the Serpentine with the adopted cygnet and had a good flap. It is remarkable that all these white feathers are completely hidden under the folded wings.

Four of the five terrapins came out on the fallen horse chestnut in the Long Water to bask in the hazy sunshine. This place can only be seen from the Italian Garden 200 yards away.

Here is another and better picture of a Speckled Wood butterfly, excellent camouflaged in the leaf litter.