Patient gull

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull enjoyed a bloody lunch while his son waited for his share. Gulls are not noted for their patience, but perhaps the youngster has learnt that whining gets him nowhere.

The female Peregrine landed beside her mate on the barracks tower.

They called to each other, and the male came out from the back of the ledge.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was being mobbed by Blue Tits as I approached, though they had stopped before I got near enough for a picture. She retreated into the leaves and preened to soothe her feelings.

When I went back later to try for a better picture she had been harassed by Carrion Crows and had fled into her hole. An owl's life is a hard one: all the other birds hate them.

To add to her discomfort there were screeching Rose-Ringed Parakeets on the dead tree.

This Robin is often seen hopping around under the huge Caucasian Elm in the Rose Garden. It's not frightened of people, since it lives in a place where gardeners are constantly digging and it can follow them to find turned-up worms. But so far I haven't managed to interest it in pine nuts.

Dead hawthorn trees encrusted with lichen are full of insects. The tree at the foot of Buck Hill attracted Long-Tailed Tits ...

... and the one on the edge of the Rose Garden had a Magpie in it also searching.

A Grey Heron stood in the weeping willow next to the bridge ...

... and below it the five teenage Mute Swans cruised with their mother, going under the bridge to the main region of their kingdom.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick from the island rushed to collect a fish from its mother.

The parents at the bridge, relieved of feeding duty at last, were having a little display.

A small procession of Egyptian Geese crossed the parapet of the imitation bridge at the outflow of the Serpentine.

The bridge, which is actually just the top of the earth dam holding in the Serpentine, was made to look like a smaller version of the main bridge and to sustain the illusion that the lake is a river.

There are just two Gadwalls in the park at the moment, both drakes: one in the Italian Garden and this one on the Serpentine. He was preening his wings.