Confident Coal Tits

Both the Coal Tit in the Flower Walk ...

... and the one at Mount Gate ...

... have now returned from their midsummer seclusion. I don't think either of them has bred, although Coal Tits do nest in the park and we see young ones occasionally. Anyway, these initially very shy birds become bold when they realise you have food for them, and will follow you for a long way down the path.

This Robin in the Flower Walk will take pine nuts thrown on the path, but that's all so far. The one near the Queen's Gate crossing which used to treat me as a mobile snackbar has gone, sad to say. They don't live very long.

Another Goldcrest seen by Ahmet Amerikali, this time in the big yew at the southeast corner of the Dell.

A young Pied Wagtail from the Round Pond hunted in the grass near Temple Gate.

A Magpie climbed up a boathouse roof, looking for insects in the joints of the slates.

The male Little Owl at the Round Pond looked out of the nest hole in the dead tree.

When you walk along the path at the northwest corner of the bridge you now often encounter a Grey Heron, sometimes two rivals. People have been feeding them there and they have become familiar and confident.

One heron had got a piece of cake, whether from a human feeder or stolen from a snack bar is uncertain. Its enjoyment was interrupted by hungry Carrion Crows.

Another heron at the Lido restaurant tried to move in on a crow eating a dead fish on the edge of the water. It wasn't successful. A heron's sharp beak is not much use for feeding on carrion and it only got a few shreds previously ripped off by the crow with its strong beak and gripping feet.

The stay-at-home young heron in the nest on the island was begging frantically when a parent landed on a branch above it.

Its adventurous sibling still returns to the nest to be fed but is now trying to fish for itself. This is how young birds progress and survive, and the one in the nest had better get a move on before its parents lose interest in feeding it.

The teenager from the previous nest is now doing very well on its own. We hope its sister at the Swan Sanctuary is recovered and faring just as well.

The male Great Crested Grebe arrived with a feather for one of the chicks. Apparently their early diet is high in feathers and low on nutritious fish as their digestive systems adjust. There are plenty of small fish at the moment and there ought to be no difficulty in finding enough for three chicks.

The pale Greylag Goose was with its mate. The three pale Greylags on the Serpentine don't seem to associate with each other and are probably not siblings, jut isolated oddities.

A Common Pochard drake preened near the Lido. Not being very bright coloured, they don't seem to change much when in eclipse ...

... unlike the much gaudier Red-Crested Pochard drakes, which now have the same plumage as females although their red eyes and bills show what they are.

A Large White butterfly fed on a verbena flower in the Rose Garden.

A head-on view of a Speckled Wood in the Flower Walk.