The male Little Owl at the leaf yard made a welcome reappearance on the chestnut tree, after several days out of sight. He had his back to the light, but never mind, it was good to see him.

It was quite a hot day, and a Carrion Crow at the edge of the Serpentine was panting to cool down.

A Magpie sunbathed near the Henry Moore sculpture.

A Mallard on the Long Water tried to lead her ducklings up into the Italian Garden, which involves a leap of several feet straight up, obviously impossible for tiny flightless ducklings. But not obvious to the mother, who went up and down several times, calling for them to follow.

Yet another family of Greylag Geese has appeared on the Serpentine, though there are only two goslings.

The Egyptian Geese who are often seen under the sculpture have seven new goslings. They took them down to the gravel bank.

There are now only four adult Egyptians on the Round Pond, the very aggressive pair and the pair with seven goslings. They still have seven, thanks to there being few gulls on the pond -- in fact there were none at all this morning, which is unusual.

The notorious pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull floated slowly over a Coot family.

He swooped ...

... and was fended off by an indignant parent.

The Coots nesting under the willow tree next to the bridge have four chicks. Three were with one parent ...

... and the fourth had managed to climb on to a branch where the other parent was preening.

Coot chicks are not very good climbers, unlike Moorhens which can get up anything from an early age. Once there was a Moorhen nest inside the Serpentine outflow, under the weir which is at least three feet high. Somehow the chicks managed to get up the weir and on to the lake. This was before the sloping plank was installed in a vain effort to save the Coot chicks which keep getting swept away.

One of the Moorhens in the Italian Garden fountain leapt nimbly over the fence into the clump of plants where the chicks were hidden.