Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs

The park is full of Blackcap song. Here is one near the Speke obelisk ...

... and another near the Henry Moore sculpture.

Chiffchaffs are also singing widely. This one was near the leaf yard ...

...and this one, photographed by Ahmet Amerikali, at the Lido.

Robins are going at full blast. This is the dominant Robin in the Flower Walk who bullies all the small birds but perches calmly on my hand collecting as many pine nuts as he can carry.

But there is sadly little contribution from Blackbirds, the quintessential song of the English spring. The park's ruthless tidying of leaf litter with blowers has reduced the number of Blackbirds by over 90 per cent in the last 50 years. It's the same story with the other resident thrushes. Here a female Blackbird is foraging in some leaves that have been overlooked.

Another picture by Ahmet, of a Goldcrest carrying nesting material in Southwark Park.

A pair of Carrion Crows strolled comfortably side by side in the grass by the leaf yard.

Three Wood Pigeons ate young hawthorn leaves.

The Grey Heron in the nest at the west end of the island is beginning to be hidden by leaves, but it's still easier to view the nest than it was to see what was happening in the high nest that produced the two young herons earlier.

A final picture by Ahmet, also from Southwark: a Little Grebe catches a small fish.

No one has seen our Little Grebe for some time, and I think it's moved on.

The dark Mallard and his mate have been familiar figures at the west end of the Serpentine for years. He is one of three similar-looking brothers, but the only one with a mate. The other two used to go around together but I haven't seen them for some time. Perhaps they have flown out to look for mates of their own.

The male Mute Swan of the pair that nest east of the Lido is a violent bully who killed a rival a few years ago. He is also a very attentive father. Here he guards his mate's eggs, pulling down a few reeds to add to the pile, while his mate is off having a feed of algae.

This is the only swan nest with eggs so far. A swan has started nesting at the southeast corner of the Serpentine, having torn a hole in a net to get to the site ...

... and there is another at the end of the reed bed below the Diana fountain ...

... but the dominant swans on the Long Water are being very slow. At least today the male was standing on the nesting island ...

... but his mate was cruising idly around the waterfront at Peter Pan looking for someone with bread.

There were several Hairy-Footed Flower Bees in the Rose Garden, all visiting the yellow wallflowers which are the bumblebees' flavour of the month.