The Little Owl on her doorstep

A very ordinary day was much improved by the Little Owl at the Round Pond, who came out on the threshold of her hole.

A Magpie gazed demandingly from a broken branch by the Long Water.

A Blue Tit in the dogwood bush at Mount Gate was also expecting service.

The Blackbird pair in the Rose Garden, evicted by the destruction of their shrubbery, were digging in a flower bed.

They're very shy but the female accepted some sultanas.

The male Chaffinch ate a pine nut in a flower bed.

I almost missed the Coal Tits, but one appeared just as I was leaving the garden.

A Robin sang on a tree while Feral Pigeons cooed at each other on the ground below.

Yes, I know we've already had two videos of this Song Thrush at the Lido, but when he's singing so gloriously on a sunny day, how can you resist filming him?

Both Peregrines were on the tower. We'll probably be seeing them more often now that the hotel in the Cromwell Road is entirely covered in scaffolding.

This Black-Headed Gull is a regular visitor, but I hadn't seen it since 2023. It has a very unexciting history, simply flying between here and the landfill site at Pitsea down the river, where it will soon be heading for the breeding season.

Sean Gillespie got a good picture of the Grey Heron pair in the nest at the east end of the island, with one of the three chicks bumbling about below them.

There's only room for one heron at a time in the Dell, and at the moment the place is occupied by one of last year's offspring, still in juvenile grey.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes displayed on the Serpentine. There are two pairs here and they're still sorting out their territories, which requires a good deal of displaying and the occasional squabble.

The other pair were displaying by the moored boats at the island. There's a bush behind the boats which has been successfully used as a nest site for several years, and no doubt they intend to occupy it.

A little flock of Shovellers landed on the Serpentine and took off again, evidently on their way to somewhere else. They headed west, so maybe they were bound for the Wetland Centre at Barnes.

We haven't seen a Mandarin here for some time, but Virginia found this drake by the bridge. He's one that knows her, and must have seen her and come out from the bush he's been lurking under.

There was a heavy shower during which I had to shelter under the Dell restaurant roof, but then we had the consolation of a fine rainbow. I've often wondered why the sky looks darker above a rainbow.