Unstoppable Egyptians

Great Tits and Blue Tits waited impatiently to be fed in the Flower Walk.

A Coal Tit came out in the yellow flowers of the paperbush.

A Blue Tit perched amid new leaves.

Four Magpies wandered around at Queen's Gate.

A tractor on the Parade Ground displaced the Redwings to the back of the bandstand, where there was an area of newly harrowed earth that made a good hunting ground.

A male Pied Wagtail took a short break from looking for larvae in the mud at the Lido restaurant.

He got one almost too small to see.

A Carrion Crow perched above the ornamental lights of the rooftop bar. They are LED bulbs and only faintly warm, but any warmth is welcome on a chilly day.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond sheltered from the wind behind a large branch.

The owls at the Speke obelisk were not to be seen. A Stock Dove looked into their hole. I'm pretty sure the owls were inside and would have given it a hot reception if it had ventured farther.

The nesting Grey Herons weren't doing anything as I passed, but when I was on the other side of the lake there was the familiar clatter of a young one begging for food. The other pair seem to have abandoned their attempt at nesting. One of them, resplendent in pink breeding colours, stalked along the edge of the lake.

The Great Crested Grebes on the Serpentine have also given up trying to nest, fortunately as they will do much better in the summer.

The Little Grebe in the Italian Garden fountain rested under the deluge. It really does seem to like it here.

Greylag Geese and Mute Swans grazed beside the Round Pond. In the background, Kensington Palace and the solitary Black Swan uttering a call that none of the other swans can understand.

The Egyptian Geese here have lost their last gosling. Undaunted, they were starting again.

The Egyptians on the Serpentine have also lost all theirs, and were looking sad on the shore.

The male Egyptian at the Henry Moore sculpture waited patiently for nightfall, when he would escort his mate as she came out of the nest tree for a quick feed and drink.

The Water Fir beside the Serpentine outflow has put out some pretty red-brown pollen cones. This tree, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, was known only from fossils until 1941, when a living tree was discovered in China. Very rare in the wild, it's now often planted as an ornamental tree. There are two others in the Dell.