Three Little Owls

The Little Owls at the Serpentine Gallery are seldom seen. Their nest tree, an old sweet chestnut, had a Carrion Crow's nest in it last year, and the crows are now looking at it again for possible reuse. They could, of course, find somewhere else to go, and the other one of the two old chestnuts here would be suitable as it is hollow and has lots of gnarled branches offering protection. But yesterday Virginia saw the male owl in their original tree, and here is her picture. He was being harassed by the local Jays, and soon flew off.

Both the Little Owls at the Round Pond were out in the sunshine, in the same horse chestnut, with the female on a lower branch ...

... and the male right at the top.

The Fieldfare and a few Redwings could be seen under the trees on the Parade Ground.

A Goldfinch looked for insects in a treetop at the foot of Buck Hill.

The small birds are much less hungry now that the weather has warmed up and there are more insects, but one of the usual Blue Tits ...

... and one of the pair of Robins were waiting at Mount Gate.

The Long-Tailed Tits at the northwest corner of the bridge were leaping around in the waterside trees.

One of the three Magpies in the Triangle posed in myrobalan blossom. There is a pair and their single offspring from last year. They haven't started nesting yet.

A Jackdaw looked down from the next tree.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks tower.

Pigeon Eater, on the left here, and his mate were in the water by the Dell restaurant. The picture shows the difference in head shape between a male and a female gull. She's sitting more upright, making her neck look longer.

The two Grey Heron chicks in the upper nest were surrounded by blossom, making them look even tattier.

A Moorhen knocked a Black-Headed Gull off a post at Peter Pan, but itself was displaced by one of the Coots nesting here. A Coot then tried to shift a Common Gull, but it wouldn't go.

Two terrapins basked in the sunshine on the opposite shore.

The Black Swan was cruising around the Serpentine with his usual companion.

The two dominant Mute Swans have the Long Water all to themselves, and were resting on the gravel under the Henry Moore sculpture.

One of the Egyptian Geese from the Italian Garden was on the swans' nesting island. The plants which have grown up since it was last used are now trodden down, showing that the swans have already visited it.

The first butterfly

The first butterfly of spring was a male Brimstone at the leaf yard ...

... and a dandelion flower had come out behind the railings at the Triangle.

The Fieldfare was still on the Parade Ground, in a tree.

It flew down to join three Redwings ...

... looking for worms.

The Little Owls at the Round Pond were having trouble with a pair of squirrels that have invaded their hole, as happened last year. They can leave by an upper hole if their usual exit is blocked, but it wasn't till mid-afternoon that the female appeared in a horse chestnut tree.

A Long-Tailed Tit at the leaf yard was pulling little bits of lichen off a tree.

When I went past later on the way to find the owl, the same bird or its mate was in the same place. It had just got a clump of moss and was about to fly off with it.

A Starling at the Round Pond shone in the sunlight.

The usual small birds were waiting in the Rose Garden, including this Blue Tit in a tree.

A Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge is also a regular customer.

The three Grey Heron chicks could be seen in the nest at the east end of the island ...

... and so could the two older ones in the upper nest.

Pigeon Eater was on the Dell restaurant roof gazing down majestically on his territory.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes were looking their best at Fisherman's Keep.

Coots mated on the nest in the planter in the Italian Garden fountain. The female was at first reluctant to respond to the male's squeaks, but relented.

The Egyptian Geese at the Round Pond have managed to keep all their nine goslings so far. It's a slightly safer place than the main lake, as there are fewer Herring Gulls.

The Black Swan flew to the Round Pond in the morning but returned to the Serpentine early in the afternoon, where it was hanging around with a pair of Mute Swans. I do wish we could find a friend for this restless and lonely bird.

More Egyptian goslings

It turns out that there are two families of Egyptian Geese on the Round Pond, the one I saw yesterday with nine goslings ...

... and another pair which originally had eight but is now down to six. They were on opposite sides of the pond, so there was no fighting for now.

A pair on the Serpentine has nine, photographed by Ahmet Amerikali.

There is also a report of a Mallard with twelve ducklings.

The Black Swan was ashore at the Dell restaurant, begging with practised skill.

A Great Crested Grebe shooed off a Coot which had wandered too close to its fishing ground.

A Cormorant on a post at Peter Pan found the spring sunshine a bit too warm, and panted to cool down.

Four Common Gulls harassed a Black-Headed Gull carrying a bit of food.

The Grey Herons at the west end of the island were in and by the nest.

The middle nest also had two in attendance. The top nest has eggs in it and a parent has been sitting for a while, but so far it's not clear if anything has happened.

The young heron in the reeds under the Italian Garden stared intently into a gap. It lunged, but didn't come up with a fish.

The Fieldfare is still on the Parade Ground. Today it came within 50 yards of the fence and there was a chance of a slightly better picture.

There were also two or three Redwings, but these stayed impossibly far away.

Wood Pigeons ate blossom in a cherry tree near the bridge. Though greedy, they do much less damage to trees than the invasive Rose-Ringed Parakeets.

Cherry blossom in the Rose Garden attracted a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.

A Blue Tit perched among leaf buds.

Ahmet got a picture of one of the Long-Tailed Tits on Buck Hill gathering moss for the nest.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was out on a branch.

A sad ending: a young fox with an injured hind leg limped across the lawn between the Dell and the Rose Garden.

It climbed into a bush in the garden. But when rescuers arrived a few hours later they found it dead. Probably it had been hit by a car and died of internal bleeding.

Stonechat on Buck Hill

A male Stonechat appeared on Buck Hill ...

... hunting insects in the long grass and scrub.

There was also a pair of Long-Tailed Tits nesting in a gorse bush ...

... and more at the foot of the hill, where they are nesting near the bridge.

The yellow blossom of the cornel cherry tree in the Rose Garden attracted a Robin ...

... and a Blue Tit. (The tree isn't actually a cherry, it's a kind of dogwood, Cornus mas.)

One of the Coal Tits waited in the next tree.

A Rose-Ringed Parakeet ate cherry blossom in the Rose Garden -- or rather it picked a flower, chewed it for a moment to squeeze out a bit of nectar, discarded it, and moved on to the next flower. They do the same with the sweet sap in leaf buds. In this wasteful way a few of these destructive birds can wreck a whole tree.

More usefully, a Honeybee browsed on the nectar. This one is a drone, not collecting pollen, but they still pollinate plants by transferring it as they around from flower to flower.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good picture of a Wren, which I missed as it dashed into a bush and disappeared.

A Coal Tit at Mount Gate was dwarfed by the big leaves of a Magnolia grandiflora.

One of the Robins came out on the railings.

A pair of Magpies encouraged each other to climb down a branch to bathe in the Long Water.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was out on a branch.

On the pond, the Egyptian Geese now have nine goslings. I'm certain there were only eight yesterday.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull was still on the Serpentine, though the other dominant one at the landing stage has already left for his breeding ground.

In the sunshine its head looked far from black. The new scientific name of the species is Chroicocephalus ridibundus, 'the leather-headed one that laughs a lot', which is pedantic but correct as that is a much better description of the colour.

A young Grey Heron in the upper nest was ranging around and flapping, looking old and tatty.

One of the herons from the west nest was down on a basket.

Since the pair were fussing around with something in the bottom of the nest yesterday, it's possible that the other heron is already sitting, out of sight unless it raises its head. But it doesn't do to get your hopes up with this hesitant couple.