Crows at work

This Carrion Crow on the Parade Ground has by itself pulled up the corners of the new turf over an area the size of a tennis court. Other crows are at work farther up the hill. No wonder the turf people hate them. They have tried all kinds of ways of discouraging them -- walking around shouting, toy windmills on sticks, kites in the shape of falcons -- but nothing has any effect and the only thing they can do is keep putting the turf back and stamping it down.

The usual female Chaffinch found me in the Flower Walk ...

...and followed me up to the Round Pond with her mate, and also with this new male whom I haven't seen before.

The Little Owl was at the back of her hole. The sun came out later and I went again to see if she had emerged, but she hadn't.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks by himself, but we know that his mate is still around as she turned up a few days ago.

A few Blackbirds have started singing tentatively. This one was by the leaf yard.

A pair of Long-Tailed Tits were in the trees near the Henry Moore sculpture. Although a lot of the brambles here have been hacked down there are still patches large enough for them to nest in.

One of the Blue Tits here is now coming to my hand.

One of the Coal Tit pair in the Rose Garden posed prettily in wattle blossom ...

... and one of the Robins sidled out of a flower bed.

The two Coal Tits in the Dell will now come down to the railings for pine nuts.

The second brood of Grey Heron chicks, in the nest at the east end of the island, are now almost adult size and have started milling around in the nest and stretching their well developed wings. They will be climbing around in the tree soon.

There is one more nest with eggs at the moment but they haven't hatched yet. It's the upper nest in this picture, where the sitting bird has stood up for its mate to take over. The nest below also has a pair in it.

Add the pair with the three older chicks, and the pair at the west end of the island, and it's a busy scene. I've never seen so much nesting activity here.

The Coots have also started nesting in earnest. The two nests at Peter Pan are being rebuilt, the one in a bush to the south ...

... and the one on the submerged chain between the posts.

As usual, there's a nest on the side of the Mute Swans' nesting island.

The sitting Coot in the nest in the Italian Garden is looking broody but so far there are no eggs.

Someone threw a peanut in the shell to this Coot, which was vainly trying to open it in the water. After five minutes of fruitless effort it gave up and swam off.