Willow Warbler

A Willow Warbler sang its gentle song in a crabapple tree near the bridge.

It was almost drowned out by traffic noise and several much louder Blackcaps. There was also a Blackcap singing in the Flower Walk.

The Starlings have started nesting in the shelter on Buck Hill, and were walking around in the grass looking for worms and insects. They were misleadingly imitating the calls of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Long-Tailed Tits ...

... but the local Long-Tailed Tits were also visiting their nest in the gorse bush. I didn't get a good photograph of them, but I did get a picture of one emerging from the Pittosporum bush in the Rose Garden holding a faecal sac from one of the nestlings -- the young birds deposit their droppings neatly wrapped, which keeps the nest clean.

It flew off to a tree to dispose of it at a safe distance from the nest.

There was a real Great Spotted Woodpecker in a tree by the Henry Moore sculpture. The usual pair is still nesting here although their favourite tree collapsed last year.

The Tawny Owl was slow to come out, but eventually appeared in the last sunny spell before cloud thickened and it started drizzling.

Tom took this fine picture of a Treecreeper on the owl's oak tree. It was a pair of Treecreepers here that led Michael Mac to find the well camouflaged owl a few weeks ago.

An unseasonal Black-Headed Gull perched on an urn in the Italian Garden.

A young Herring Gull inched towards a Coots' nest on the plastic buoys at the Lido, hoping for eggs or chicks and struggling to keep its balance. The Coot sent it packing.

One of the troubles of Coots is that Grey Herons hijack their nests for fishing stations ...

... but they can always build another. A pair nest every year on the Mute Swans' nesting island on the Long Water, and the new fence around the island is actually an advantage, as it discourages the swans from pecking at them.

The rotten planking on the boat platform is being torn up to be replaced before the new firm operating the boat hire moves in, which is scheduled for July. The local pair of Moorhens have seized the chance to find previously hidden insects.

The Mallard on the Serpentine still has six ducklings, but they are terribly exposed to gull attack.

Mild temperature and hazy sunshine brought out three terrapins on the Long Water.

A pair of Small White butterflies mated in the border at the Rose Garden. They can fly while coupled, and moved to several places over the five minutes I was watching them.

A steel tube sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery has been made more interesting by being colonised by Harlequin Ladybirds.

There is a beautiful clump of Snakeshead Fritillaries in the Flower Walk.