Swan surprise

The sixth teenage Mute Swan was back with the other five at the Vista. It's the one on the left of this picture. It doesn't have a ring, while the five offspring of the killer have both metal rings and orange plastic ones. This must prove that it isn't the one of the original six that was taken to the Swan Sanctuary to recover from a broken leg, as this would certainly have been ringed when it was there.

Later the six moved on to the Serpentine. They were joined by both parents of the five, and I was expecting the killer to attack the extra teenager. But he didn't, and here they are peaceably together. Never try to predict the behaviour of swans.

Joan Chatterley went to St James's Park. She didn't find our missing Black Swan. Indeed, she found only one, the female who was in Hyde Park before our latest visitor, and then went to St James's and became the guardian of a Mute family. Here is her picture.

It's surprising that there aren't more, unless some were out of sight. Until quite recently there were five Black Swans here, and the maximum a few years ago was nine, with four young  siblings that visited the Round Pond and then moved to St James's where they only stayed for a short time.

A Great Crested Grebe at the Lido. If grebes could read they wouldn't pay any heed to that sign.

A Coot had a furious splashy wash by a reed bed on the Long Water. The purpose is to rinse parasites out of its feathers, so the more vigour is applied, the more effective it is.

A Cormorant at the Serpentine island was already in breeding plumage, with a white patch and spiky white feathers on its head.

This is the Grey Heron nest at the east end of the island. If you look carefully you can just see that there is a heron sitting in it.

The earlier active nest in the middle of the island is higher, and when the heron settles down you can't see it at all.

A Carrion Crow in the Dell had a drink and a bathe in the small waterfall.

Most of the usual crew turned out in the Rose Garden shrubbery, with a growing band of Great Tits ...

... a Blue Tit ...

... a Coal Tit ...

... and the male Chaffinch.

I was also accosted by the usual Chaffinch in the Flower Walk.

Both the Robins at the Queen's Gate crossing came out at once, and when the one from the north side was on my hand it was dive-bombed and knocked off by the south one, jealous of its feeding station being occupied. This has already happened a few times.

This is a different Robin just up the path, often heard singing in a bush behind the snack bar at the Albert Memorial.

Feral Pigeons crowded on to the remains of a burger at the Lido restaurant, as usual ignoring the slices of tomato.

On the lawn under the Henry Moore sculpture a patch of purple deadnettles is unseasonably in flower.

Ahmet Amerikali was at Russia Dock Woodlands, where he found a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

A final picture by Joan Chatterley of a very bold fox out in the open in St James's Park. It has probably already had a run-in with Larry the cat in Downing Street.