Back to normal

Back on my feet for the first time today. I made a short and cautious visit to Kensington Gardens, and was delighted to find the young Little Owl by the Round Pond looking out from the dead tree where he was hatched.

As usual, Magpies were searching for insects in the rotting upper part of the trunk, now sawn off and lying beside the tree.

A Green Woodpecker was foraging in the grass under a plane tree in the avenue leading from the Albert Memorial to the Physical Energy statue. They like these trees to make nest holes in, and I've often seen them in the avenue. For some reason Green Woodpeckers are much calmer about being approached when they're on the ground rather than safely up in a tree. But you have to be very careful not to let them see you looking at them, so you hold the camera in front of your face.

Otherwise it was a day for catching up with old friends. In the Flower Walk the usual Coal Tit ...

... lots of Great Tits ...

... and two Robins came to my hand ...

... and a Chaffinch was happy to take a pine nut from the ground.

One of the local Jays was waiting beside the path and flew down to snatch a peanut from my fingers.

A Long-Tailed Tit at the bridge stared at the camera. It's remarkable how frontally set their eyes are, giving them an almost owl-like stare. Evidently they need good binocular vision for dashing around in trees, though their field of view must be less panoramic than with most birds.

There was a hint of autumn chill in the air in the morning. Autumn crocuses are out by the bridge.

Later in the day warmed up enough for a bronze Feral Pigeon to bask under the Henry Moore sculpture.

A Grey Heron has found a new lookout point on the curved golden roof of the snack bar next to the bridge.

A Great Crested Grebe cruised briskly under the bridge to do a bit of fishing on the Serpentine.

A terrapin climbed up on a branch opposite Peter Pan. You can see from the red streak on its head that it's a Red-Eared Slider.

There are fewer bees to be seen, but I found a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee and a Common Carder on two flowers I hadn't seen them on before. I had to look the Nandina up on PlantNet -- I'd never heard of it.

The amazingly durable Verbena bonariensis is still in flower, and attracted a slightly tattered Small White butterfly.

There was a model shoot for some very strange dresses against the dismal background of the Serpentine pavilion. This one had a stiff wired hem, so the wearer would have been as impeded as any grand lady of the eighteenth century in a hooped skirt.