Robins all over the place

It's amazing how many Robins there are, noticed now because they've started singing. We've been having a lot of pictures of them lately, but they are irresistible. Here are two regular customers for pine nuts, the young one by the bridge ...

... and my old favourite in the Flower Walk, who is in his third year of coming to my hand.

This one in the Flower Walk has got to the stage of flying down to take pine nuts off the ground.

On the other side of the path a large section of the border has been cleared for winter planting, making a good hunting ground for a Robin looking for insects and worms.

The ubiquitous male Chaffinch, who may be anywhere between the Round Pond and the Long Water, also turned up in the Flower Walk. He is extremely active despite the bad state of his feet with the vurus infection.

A male Blackcap was ticking loudly in a bush by the bridge, and you could just see him occasionally through the twigs.

Long-Tailed Tits flitted around in a horse chestnut tree by the Henry Moore sculpture.

The tree has been very badly hit by the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth, Cameraria ohridella, whose larvae chew the leaves and make them turn brown. Evidently it's these that attract the birds; the tree is also much visited by other tits, Wrens and Chiffchaffs. It has a bramble patch around its base which provides shelter for the moth's life cycle. Trees that stand on mown grass are never more than lightly affected.

Mario alterted me to another spreading insect pest, the ominously named Fig Leaf Skeletoniser Moth, Choreutis nemorana. This has attacked a fig tree on the path just west of the Mount Gate lavatories, and here is the damage caused by its larvae.

Again, the tree was full of insect-eating birds, including this Coal Tit.

A young Blackbird was digging a hole under the railings of the Dell. It had been at work for a couple of minutes before I started filming, and the hole was already quite deep. I though it might be excavating an ants' nest, but when the Blackbird had gone I looked at the hole and didn't see any ants. That might just have been because the bird had done a thorough job.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was well hidden in the horse chestnut and it took me quite a while to find her.

The Hobbies could be distantly heard hunting over the Parade Ground.

Pigeon Eater was ranging around his usual place on the shore by the Dell restaurant, leaving his perch on the roof vacant, and it had been occupied by a very discoloured Lesser Black-Backed Gull. It has pinkish grey legs like a Herring Gull instead of the usual yellow, grey eyes instead of yellow, and hardly any colour on its bill.

The Grey Heron that has taken up the territory around the Henry Moore sculpture is a very bold bird. It waits on the edge of the path hoping that people will feed it, and if you sit on the bench it will stalk up to you looking hopeful. It probably gets a good share of picnickers' sandwiches.

The mother of the Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Serpentine carried a perch ...

... and one of the chicks hurried to claim it.

The chicks on the Long Water could be seen on far side of the Vista ...

... where a Cormorant was having a violent wash.

The Mute Swan pair on the Serpentine that used to rest behind the railings of the boathouse have been evicted by the aggressive pair from the island, with the male having the ring 4FYG. He lost an eye in a fight a few months ago but this hasn't slowed him down.