Blackbird at work

A female Blackbird behind the Queen's Temple caught a worm easily, then dug frantically in the leaf litter. She seemed to be getting something: maybe she had found an ants' nest.

A Robin watched from a branch.

A Coal Tit sang loudly in a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

A Chiffchaff often sings by the leaf yard, usually at the top of a tall tree. But it came down for a moment and Ahmet Amerikali got a fine close-up picture of it.

He also saw a male Blackcap singing near Peter Pan ...

... and the Blue Tit at the foot of Buck Hill, which dashed into its nest hole carrying a feather, so he waited for it to come out and got it then.

A Starling shone in the sunlight on the edge of the Serpentine.

A female Magpie by the bridge fluttered her wings and called plaintively to her mate on a branch below, who was eating a peanut. He did fly up to give her a bit.

The two young Grey Herons from the first nest on the Serpentine island are now exploring the park, and were standing on the gravel strip in the Long Water.

It does look as if the heron on the new nest has eggs. It was sitting when I arrived ...

... then got up and poked in the bottom of the nest as if turning eggs ...

... and sat down again.

A heron at the boathouse watched as a Coot investigated a clump of sprouts thrown into the lake as part of the Nowruz festival, the Zoroastrians' celebration of their New Year at the spring solstice. The Coot didn't like them and soon went away.

The Coots on the Serpentine side of the bridge were busy building up their nest. The one in the nest hadn't finished arranging a twig when its mate came back with a leaf.

On the other side of the bridge a pair of Great Crested Grebes were building a nest under a branch of the collapsed weeping willow.

In the Italian Garden fountains, the Gadwall drake who is the dominant male in the odd trio was having a rest and the female Mallard was hungry, so she joined the Mallard drake in dabbling for food.

The single Egyptian gosling on the Serpentine had eluded the hungry Herring Gulls for another day.

A female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee climbed into a minature narcissus in the Rose Garden border ...

... and a worker Honeybee collected pollen from a grape hyacinth.

Little Owl on the warpath

Although it was a sunny day there was quite a strong wind, and I didn't expect to see a Little Owl. But as I went past the old sweet chestnut tree near the Serpentine there was a pair of Stock Doves flapping around and suddenly something brown shot out of a hole and attacked them. It was the female owl. She stood above the hole looking pleased with herself.

The young male Chaffinch who has appeared recently in Kensington Gardens ...

... was with the female in the Flower Walk and there was no sign of the old male. He is in a sad state with feet badly infected with the virus, and she may have deserted him in favour of a healthy young mate.

A Goldfinch looked down from a treetop behind the Queen's Temple ...

... and a Long-Tailed Tit perched on a lower twig.

A Great Tit waited in a camellia bush in the Flower Walk.

A Wren in the bushes by the Henry Moore sculpture stayed still for long enough to have its picture taken.

The Robins on the north edge of the Rose Garden are not yet on such intimate terms as the pair in the middle which I photographed yesterday. They are still at the stage where one stays in a bush ...

... while the other is on the ground, but at least they're tolerating each other.

Two Grey Herons uncomfortably close together on the gravel strip in the Long Water eyed each other with suspicion.

The three young herons from the second nest on the island were wandering around on the shore. They are still returning to the nest to be fed, but will soon have to find their own food.

There are now two Coot nests at the Mute Swans' nesting island on the Long Water.

A pair of swans were courting on the edge of the Serpentine.

The Egyptian Goose and her last gosling rested on the shore.

The Mandarins cruised past the island.

A Gadwall pair cropped algae at the edge. It's pleasing that we now seem to we now have a permanent population of these quiet well behaved ducks.

Two irresponsible dog owners arrived at the Vista at the same time and encouraged eight dogs to go into the water, scaring away the dark Mallard drake who had been feeding at the edge.

Sunshine showed off the carp in the Dell stream. They have a small world, bounded at one end by the small waterfall and at the other end by the grille where the stream goes underground on its way to the Thames just upstream of Chelsea Bridge.