Starling chicks growing up

On a sunny Saturday the park was crowded and there wasn't much to see in the way of small birds, but I got a shot of a Wren scolding a Magpie in a tree near the bridge.

The Starling chicks in the nest hole in the plane tree are growing up fast, and have a more finished look than even two days ago when I last filmed them.

There's another Starling nest at an earlier stage in a hole in the next tree.

A Great Crested Grebe caught a fair-sized perch. Thanks to Duncan Campbell for this picture.

This year's small fish are now at a suitable size for feeding grebe chicks, so a nest started now is likely to do well. However, the attempt at attaching a nest to the wire basket at the island isn't getting anywhere, and can't succeed in that awkward place.

The Coot nest at the Dell restaurant may be an impressive feat of Coot construction, but their taste in decoration leaves a lot to be desired. Ornaments include coffee cup lids, food packaging, cutlery and an Oyster visitor card. A Coot adds a bit of old plastic bag to the mess.

The nest at the bridge still hasn't produced any more chicks, and only two of the original three remain. A Coot turned the eggs, but will any of them hatch? It's possible that, with two females laying, the second lot of eggs started developing much later.

Two male Mute Swans had a faceoff on opposite sides of the line of buoys at the Lido, which conveniently prevented a fight from breaking out. Swans may be aggressive but they aren't crazy.

The male swan visited the nest in the reeds east of the Lido. He is the biggest thug on the Serpentine and spends a lot of time attacking the other swans, but he is happy to collect reeds to add to his mate's nest.

The Black Swan's Mute girlfriend now seems genuinely attached to him, and today was following him rather than the other way round.

A pair of Egyptian Geese on the Long Water have produced three new goslings, which were at Peter Pan. 

It's been a very good year for the Egyptians in the park. The broods of eleven and seven on the Serpentine were still in good shape today.

The Mallards near the Lido still have five of their original six ducklings. This is quite good going for a Mallard here, as usually all their ducklings are taken in a couple of days. But the young are still tiny and there's a long way to go.

However, the other pair have lost one and are down to three.

A patch of blue flowers at the top of the steps down to the bridge was doing good business with bees. This is where you can usually find Early Bumblebees, but I hadn't seen one till today.

There were also Buff-Tailed Bumblebees ...

... and Honeybees.

Update: I thought this plant was a Forget-Me-Not, but Ulrike challenged that. PlantNet thinks it's Green Alkanet, which I had never even heard of.

Two bees of uncertain kind photographed by Duncan Campbell. This is an Andrena Mining Bee, probably A. scotica according to Conehead 54 ...

... and this is a Mason Bee, probably Osmia bicornis.