Owls aplenty

The adult male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery perched with one of his owlets before flying off. and there was also a view of the other owlet in the next tree.

The male Little Owl at the Round Pond was on the dead tree. I didn't see the owlets ...

... but two days ago Virginia got some fine pictures of him with an owlet ...

... and the two owlets together.

Mark Williams took this pleasing shot of two young Starlings finishing off a bowl of coup at the Lido restaurant ...

... and another of something very odd: a woman taking a young Magpie for a walk on a lead. She must have rescued it, but couldn't be asked as she had a phone glued to her ear. She also had two dogs, but if the Magpie survives it will rule them effortlessly.

A Jay beside the Long Water was shedding a wing feather, but this didn't impede it as it swooped town to grab a peanut from my fingers. Like most birds they moult their flight feathers one at a time.

It's only water birds that moult them all at once and are flightless for several weeks. The Black Swan is in this situation. He was resting on the edge of the Serpentine.

The Mute Swan from the nest by the Diana reed bed was on the other side of the lake contemplating her single cygnet. It looks pathetic in this picture, but soon got up and moved around briskly.

The sole surviving cygnet on the island is now growing well.

The seven Egyptian goslings and their parents were sprawled carelessly all over the path. They are not worried by people, but if a dog appears in the distance they are alert enough and run for the water.

An intense stare from a Red Crested Pochard drake.

The Great Crested Grebes that took over the Coots' nest at the Serpentine outflow were still in possession. But they found the nest uncomfortably high to climb on to. Duncan Campbell photographed one trying to mate, and falling off.

So today they have pulled some of the nest down and covered it with weed to make the sloppy mess they are used to.

The nest at the Diana fountain reed bed, built from scratch by grebes, is even sloppier. I am always worried that these things will fall to bits.

The first Black-Headed Gull has returned and was on a post at Peter Pan. The picture shows the foolishness of calling them 'black-headed', but we're stuck with the name.

A fine close-up by Duncan: a Hornet Hoverfly, Volucella zonaria.