Too many Cormorants

Another wet day. The male Peregrine was on the barracks but left when a heavy shower started. I wonder if they have a sheltered perch somewhere.

A Pied Wagtail hunted on the wet grass near Kensington Palace.

The Long-Tailed Tits were at Peter Pan for the third day running. There must be some bush particularly attractive to insects to cause them to spend so much time here.

As sunset approached, Starlings gathered to roost in a treetop by the Round Pond, chattering to each other.

A young Herring Gull played with a stolen peanut. They can crush and shell nuts with their powerful beak, but this young bird doesn't seem to have got the idea.

Twenty Cormorants stood in a row on the posts at Peter Pan.

There were another 13 elsewhere on the Long Water, including this one apparently standing on the water but in fact perched on a small submerged branch.

There weren't enough posts at the island for all the Cormorants to stand on. One evicted another.

The Moorhen in the Dell stream had been pushed off its favourite rock by a Mallard drake.

A female Mallard stirred up mud in a puddle.  Heaven knows what it was finding to eat there.

For the second day there were only two Mute Swans on the Long Water, the male from the Italian Garden and the female of the dominant pair. I don't know what has happened to their partners. As far as I know there have been no reports of dead swans on the Long Water since the teenage cygnet at the start of the bird flu outbreak.

The Egyptian Goose pair had found the Italian Garden empty and returned ...

... but when the male swan flew in they prudently went up to the urns out of harm's way.

A Pochard drake on the Serpentine preened and flapped.