Still more Egyptian goslings

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was out on the end of branch today ...

... but the one at the Serpentine Gallery didn't put in an appearance.

A Long-Tailed Tit by the bridge was about to dive into the brambles to add a bit of spider web to the nest.

A Great Tit posed in blackthorn blossom ...

... which a Wood Pigeon was eating.

Ahmet Amerikali found both Siskins ...

... and Goldfinches in the alders near the Italian Garden.

The female Peregrine on the barracks tower had just caught a Feral Pigeon and was plucking it before she started eating.

One of the young Grey Herons on the island was in the upper nest and one in the main nest, and both were clattering their bills to make their parents feed them. A parent got away from them by perching in the top of the tree.

Pigeon Eater's mate had just finished eating her share of today's lunch, leaving precious little for a young Herring Gull to pick at.

A Black-Headed Gull clearly disapproved of the illiterate syntax on yet another hectoring sign put up by the park management.

You can see the Black Swan and his girlfriend in the background.

As if the Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine with three goslings left didn't have enough to cope with from gulls, the killer Mute Swan has also been attacking the family. This dramatic picture caught by Ahmet shows him very nearly getting one of the young. The parents both set on him furiously and drove him off.

Later they were on the island, still in militant mood. They chased off another pair. This left the goslings exposed to a Carrion Crow, and the parents only just got back in time to stop it from grabbing one. These pointless territorial disputes are probably the main reason Egyptians lose their young.

Another pair of Egyptians have brought out a family on the edge of the flood in Hyde Park where heavy rain caused the buried Tyburn Brook to burst out of its culvert.

This is the family at Marble Arch, still with seven young which are now growing well. They were resting comfortably on some straw put down by Solaya, who looks after them devotedly.

And lastly, a pair wandered over the wood chips under the two old chestnut trees by the Serpentine Gallery. The female has a nest hole in the tree in the background and will soon be retiring there, while the Little Owls nest in the other tree.

Four more Mandarin drakes have arrived on the Long Water, evidently refugees from the oil spill in the Regent's Canal.

The Great Crested Grebes who have a nest site in the bushes at the east end of the island were displaying just offshore from there.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee wandered along the bottom of the railings at Peter Pan. It was not clear what the attraction of this place was, with not a flower anywhere.