A bold Jackdaw

A challenging stare from a Jackdaw who wanted to be fed. You'd never think that the birds that were so shy just eight years ago, flying off if you came within fifty yards of them, could have become so assured.

The Magpies beside the Long Water are also most insistent.

Thanks to Mark Williams for a pretty picture of a Blue Tit.

A gusty wind kept the female Little Owl at the Round Pond in her hole ...

... but as the sunny afternoon warmed up she emerged and perched in the horse chestnut tree.

The female Peregrine looked down from her ledge on to a scene of chaos as preparations are made for Sunday's half marathon. Most of the Crystal Palace site has been turned into an encampment full of lorries, vans, cherry pickers and fork lifts. But there are still lots of Feral Pigeons for her whenever she wants one, and her other perch on the Metropole Hilton hotel, overlooking the Marylebone flyover, is even noisier.

The old Grey Heron by the Henry Moore sculpture managed to combine the sunbathing posture with sitting down.

A heron trying to fish from the Coots' nest by the bridge glared at a Cormorant swimming around and disturbing everything.

A young heron stood on the landing stage at the Diana fountain ...

... to the annoyance of the resident Black-Headed Gull, who can and does chase geese off his territory but no one wants to be within reach of that terrible beak.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was nowhere to be seen, but clearly he had breakfasted and a Carrion Crow was cleaning up the remains.

One of the Great Crested Grebe parents at the Lido preened its threadbare wings. The feathers are ruined by carrying chicks  and then it's time to moult. It will have new flight feathers soon, and meanwhile it doesn't have to go anywhere.

One of the two teenagers had a faceoff with a Coot. Shortly afterwards it dived and surfaced under the Coot to harass it.

A Moorhen had a brisk wash and flap on the edge of the Serpentine.

You wouldn't think a bird as large as a Greylag Goose could dive, but they often do as part of their washing routine. They can travel twenty yards or more under water before surfacing.

 

A Common Carder Bee in the Rose Garden was wandering about on the ground. It didn't seem to be in a state of collapse as it was flying occasionally, and it was only inches from a clump of flowers with other bees, so I left it alone.

Poplar Fieldcap mushrooms clustered on the roots of the perilously leaning Lombardy Poplar at Peter Pan. These fungi spread white rot in the wood. The roots are already coming out of the ground as the tree leans more and more, and I constantly expect them to snap and send the tree crashing into the Long Water. But it has survived several recent gales that have brought down other healthier poplars.