The young Grey Herons are getting restless. One of them stretched a pair of well developed wings. It could probably fly now, but the other two are not so far ahead, so they are all being kept in the nest.

One of the others climbed up on to a branch.

The Great Crested Grebe sitting on the nest at the island had its wings slightly raised. This may mean that the chicks are hatching and sheltering under its wings.

The female Mute Swan on the little island in the Serpentine finally stood up while I was there, and I hoped to see the reported cygnet. But there was no sign of it. Was the report a false alarm? Anyway, they will come along in their own time.

The Mallard family at the bridge still have four ducklings.

One of the Coots from the nest near the bridge brought some green leaves to please its mate. But three eggs have now fallen out of this high narrow nest, leaving only six.

This is the first picture of a young Blackbird this year. It was under the Henry Moore sculpture while its mother poked around for a worm to give it.

Just up the hill, the female Carrion Crow looked into her nest.

But as soon as she saw me she flew down to demand a peanut, and her mate arrived a few seconds later.

A pair of crows were both collecting dead grass to line their nest, which is in the plane trees lining Rotten Row east of the Dell.

Another crow on the edge of the Serpentine pulled a box out a waste bin and examined it to see if it contained anything edible.

A Long-Tailed Tit was flying around the trees beside the Long Water collecting insects for its nestlings.

The pair of Grey Wagtails were on the Lido jetty ...

... and so was a Pied Wagtail.

The attraction of this unpromising-looking bit of ridged blue plastic is that Egyptian Geese stand on it, and their droppings attract insects which can be picked out of the gaps between the ridges.

A Cormorant was preening on one of the rafts at the east end of the Serpentine.

Its flight feathers and tail are in a tatty state with many broken ends. But it is regrowing its central tail feathers, which can be seen emerging from their blue wrappings. Birds that fly constantly moult their main feathers in sequence, so that they are always airworthy -- unlike, for example, ducks, geese, swans and grebes, which are flightless while moulting and regrowing their flight feathers.

The blonde female Mallard was also preening.