One of the Hobbies was circling high over Kensington Gardens.

We had been worried that one of the pair had not made it back from Africa, after one briefly appeared in the spring and nothing more was seen for months. But then Paul saw two together, too far away to tell if they were both adults or one was a juvenile. Either way, it means that the parents are all right. We don't know where they nested, but probably at the far east end of Hyde Park or even in one of the garden squares on the far side of Park Lane. Recently they have been appearing more often, though soon it will be time for them to fly south again.

The Little Owls at the leaf yard had swapped their usual places. The female was in the nest tree ...

... and the male was in the tree just up the hill.

The pair of Nuthatches were in the leaf yard, calling to each other and coming down to take food from the railings.

A Wood Pigeon was eating unripe holly berries beside the Long Water, although there were some riper ones on the same tree.

I've often seen Wood Pigeons eating the unripe, hard berries of various trees. They actually seem to prefer them.

Someone had given a bit of bread to a Canada Goose, which was being chased by another Goose and also harried by a Black-Headed Gull.

It was flustered into dropping the bread, and the gull made off with it, pursued by two others.

A Great Crested Grebe chick on the Long Water made a frantic splashy rush to grab a fish from its parent.

The male of the pair of dominant Mute Swans on the Long Water was preening his regrowing wing feathers.

He still can't fly, and his mate is doing most of the work of repelling invaders from their territory.

I talked to Malcolm the Wildlife Officer. He said that the Black Swan had probably flown away. He keeps a very close watch on the lake, and if the swan had been killed by the dominant Mute pair, he would have seen the body by now.

I was talking to him because one of the Grey Herons is in trouble. It is the young one which until a few days ago was hanging around the restaurant. Now it has got a bit of plastic netting wrappped around its bill and can't shake it off, and is unable to eat. Malcolm has been trying to catch it for three days, an extremely difficult task.

The fine plastic netting used to wrap food and other small items is dangerous, and not only to herons. Small birds can get their feet tangled in it. The stuff doesn't rot and hangs around for years. There is a man who throws fat balls wrapped in this netting into the trees in Kensington Gardens. So far I have not been able to catch him at it. If anyone sees him doing this, please stop him and explain to him in the strongest possible way that his misplaced kindness is not just covering the trees with ugly litter, but actually doing harm.

Another two herons were more pleasantly engaged in chasing each other across the grass near the Serpentine Gallery.

This striking picture of a huge wasp nest was taken by Neil. It's in a horse chestnut tree across the path from the Henry Moore sculpture, and a few yards to the north.