Dim and drizzly

It was a dark damp day, but the Robins in the Rose Garden were undeterred. One was poking around in a flower bed and flew up on to a bench ...

... and another sang in a rose bush.

The male Blackbird in the Dell has had a family this year, but now they have dispersed and I haven't even seen his mate recently.

A different male Chaffinch from the one often seen in the Flower Walk, in the bushes on the east side of the Albert Memorial.

The usual pair of Pied Wagtails were working their way round the edge of the Serpentine, and again I managed to get a picture of the male finding a tiny larva.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond sheltered from the drizzle.

The Peregrines were on the barracks.

They stayed there at least until 2.20 pm, when I left the park and hurried down to the Cromwell Road to try to find the Peregrines there and prove it's a different pair. But they weren't visible. Well, I will keep trying.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was enjoying his lunch while his mate and son waited for their turn -- the young one still hasn't been chased away. The female sent off another gull that was getting too close.

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull balanced carefully on a plastic buoy at the Lido.

The marble fountain in the Italian Garden is running low, producing just enough of a trickle to amuse a Black-Headed Gull. Many birds like the sensation of water running over their feet. Also the water in this fountain, which comes out of a borehole at at steady 10°C, is a little warmer than the surrounding air.

The gull who guards the landing stage at the Diana fountain had gone into the fountain enclosure to find worms brought up by the drizzle.

There were just three Cormorants on the fallen poplar in the Long Water, where a few weeks ago you could sometimes see 20.

A few more stood on the posts at Peter Pan. A young one was preening.

Two of the young Moorhens in the Italian Garden probed the gaps between the paving stones.

The Mute Swan family have taken to hanging around in the water below the Triangle car park. The point of this is that people arrive in cars with bread, can't be bothered to walk any distance, and chuck it into the lake here. There are usually plenty of Coots for the same reason.

A brighter picture from yesterday by Duncan Campbell: a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee sunning itself on a tree.