Gull with a big fish

A Lesser Black-Backed Gull on the Long Water caught a large fish and struggled unsuccessfully to swallow it. After some time it flew away with the fish, probably to put it on the ground and peck it to pieces.

One of the eight Coot chicks in the Italian Garden fountain pool washed and preened its downy feathers.

Coots' nest building methods look haphazard but are remarkably effective. Twigs are pushed around until they more or less fit into the growing structure. Unfortunately these Coots at Peter Pan are less efficient at choosing a good location. They've already lost one lot of chicks to the gulls, and any they have now will go the same way.

There is just one Great Crested Grebe on the Round Pond. It had a faceoff with a Coot.

The Mute Swan pair nesting on the grassy bank at the back of the Lido are staying put in this exposed place. They don't have any eggs yet ...

... but the pair at the boathouse have one. They won't start sitting until they have more; the eggs will stay viable but won't develop until they are warmed by the sitting bird. This ensures that they all hatch around the same time.

An Egyptian Goose beside the Serpentine balanced on one leg while preening a hard-to-reach place.

There are now a lot of Reed Warblers. Three males were singing in the reeds below the Diana fountain. Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of one of them out in the open on the low railings at the water's edge ...

... and another in the small reed bed below the parapet of the Italian Garden.

I saw one in the reeds east of the Lido.

The Blue Tits in the Rose Garden were as demanding as ever.

Long-Tailed Tits are everywhere. This one was by the Henry Moore sculpture ...

... and there was another near the Buck Hill shelter. You can see some small red grubs and a Harlequin Ladybird within easy reach -- though maybe ladybirds taste too bitter for them to eat.

Ahmet got a fine picture of one in the Rose Garden bringing caterpillars to its nest.

The Robins near the Henry Moore sculpture were also both busy collecting caterpillars ...

... and the pair at Mount Gate came out to pick up pine nuts.

The female Little Owl could be seen in the lime tree at the Round Pond.

There are thousands of hoverflies, mostly Common Drone and Common Banded. This is one of the latter behind the Queen's Temple.

Unenthusiastic Magpie

A female Magpie solicited her mate to feed her, which he would need to do when she was nesting. He didn't seem very keen on the idea and went away.

A Pied Wagtail twittered on a post at the Vista as it waited for an insect to pass.

After a while it flew along to the Coots' nest at Peter Pan. It's a good place for hunting insects, as the Coots' messy nest attracts these.

A Dunnock sang on a stem in the bushes nearby.

The male Reed Warbler at the east end of the Lido was singing.

On a warm afternoon a Wood Pigeon cooled itself by splashing in the lake.

Starlings bathed next to a female Mallard, splashing water on her. She got annoyed after a while and swam off.

The Robin pair at the nest in the middle of the Rose Garden came out to collect pine nuts to feed to their chicks.

The Little Owls at the Round Pond were on their favourite branch in the lime tree. They really aren't easy to see when they're here, and you have to know the exact spot to get anything like a view.

Two Cormorants on a fallen tree in the Long Water were waving and grabbing at twigs. It's clear that they are a couple but this wasn't really a pair display, they were just amusing themselves.

Mark Williams photographed a Grey Heron eating quiche in St James's Park. Herons will eat just about anything they can pick up, though they might draw the line if there was pineapple on it.

An interesting picture from Mike Harris, who was swimming at the Lido with an underwater camera: a Mute Swan pulling up algae from the bottom.

The swan nesting in the reeds at the east end of the Serpentine is very hard to see, but the nest has been going for a while and seems firmly established.

The male Egyptian Goose at the Albert Memorial, like the one at the Henry Moore sculpture, has been on his own for some days and it's clear that his mate is nesting in a tree.

A pair of Gadwalls dabbled under a post at Peter Pan.

The sunshine has warmed the shallow water in the Italian Garden pools, bringing the carp to the surface as there is less oxygen dissolved in warm water.

A early Dryad's Saddle fungus, Polyporus squamosus, at the northwest corner of the bridge. Usually you see them growing on dead tree trunks, but this one is on some rotten wood on the ground.

Little Owls in the leaves

The Little Owls at the Round Pond were perched side by side again, but today deep inside their lime tree and hard to see.

A Blackcap sang in the red-leafed cherry tree at the northwest corner of the bridge.

Ahmet Amerikali took a good picture of the male Reed Warbler in the reed bed east of the Lido, and reports that he now has a mate.

I got a video of the same bird singing very quietly. They are the only pair in the small patch of reeds, so he has no need to sing loudly, unlike the rivals in the larger Diana fountain reed bed.

The Blue Tits in the Rose Garden are unstoppably demanding, much more so than the usually dominant Great Tits. This is one of a pair based in trees at the north side of the garden, where they may be nesting.

There are at least two Robin nests in the Rose Garden, and Ahmet photographed one of them carrying insects ...

... and a Long-Tailed Tit also feeding young. These could be heard calling in the nest.

I found another carrying a couple of caterpillars under the bridge parapet.

A Starling perched on an umbrella at the Lido restaurant.

The Pied Wagtail was back on the posts at Peter Pan.

A team from the BTO were making a documentary about the Rose-Ringed Parakeets. I showed them the place by the Long Water where people feed them and they got some good footage of these pretty but pestilential creatures. A pair were sharing an apple on the railings -- they must have been mates because otherwise they'd have been fighting.

A Grey Heron was fishing from a fallen Lombardy poplar at the Vista.

The male Mute Swan at the island was guarding the nest, which is hidden in the bushes. The pair at the boathouse shuffled twigs around restlessly. The female at the Lido restuarant terrace turned over her seven eggs to keep them evenly warmed.

An Egyptian Goose preened its big complicated wings and flapped to settle the feathers.

There were three Mandarin drakes at the island, uneasy rivals and occasionally chasing each other away. Only one has a mate, who is nesting in a tree in Kensington Gardens.

A pair of Pochards dived at the Lido jetty.

A patch of comfrey in the Dell attracted a female Hairy-Footed Flower Bee ...

... and a male.

Little Owls in love

The Little Owl pair at the Round Pond were side by side in their lime tree, calling affectionately and preening each other.

Now that the leaves are fully out on most of the trees it's getting harder to photograph small songbirds, and mostly you just hear them.  A couple of Robins were in sight, one in the bushes by Peter Pan ...

... and the other on the pergola in the Rose Garden.

An unsuccessful attempt to get a picture of a Blue Tit in the pink-flowered hawthorn in the Rose Garden accidentally captured a Dark-Edged Bee Fly feeding in the blossom.

A Wood Pigeon was eating the flowers on a hawthorn beside the Long Water.

A Starling ate an apple that someone had put out for the Rose-Ringed Parakeets. In fact the parakeets don't much like Granny Smith apples and greatly prefer red varieties, but Starlings aren't fussy.

A Pied Wagtail used the jetty at the Lido as a hunting station.

A Cormorant on a branch of the big fallen poplar in the Long Water idly played with a twig. It wasn't displaying to another Cormorant, it was just amusing itself.

One of the young Grey Herons preened farther up in the tree. This looks like one of the three from the second nest, but it's getting hard to tell the difference in the ages of the first two broods. The third set haven't come down from their tree yet, though they're now climbing all over it.

The Great Crested Grebe pair at the east end of the island are guarding their nest site in a bush, and were displaying under the rowing boats moored in front of it. They have sensibly not started nesting yet: the longer they wait, the more small fish there will be to feed to the chicks.

The Coot nesting on a chain nearby was snapping in the air. There are so many midges that it can catch them from a sitting position as they go by.

It was all aboard at the nest in the Italian Garden. The eight chicks are doing well. It's the best nest site in the park, sheltered by the tall iris leaves in a place seldom visited by Herring Gulls.

Things are sadly different on the Serpentine, which is thronged with gulls standing on the moored boats. The pair at the boathouse are down to their last gosling ...

... and there are only three left at the boat hire platform, though here their parents had the sense to keep them in the shelter of the platform.

The Mallard ducklings were here too. I couldn't see how many have survived as they were popping in and out of the shadows. Two of them are dark and if they were to survive (a very big if) they would probably grow into the dark brown adults of which we have several on the lake.

The Gadwall drake and Mallard female were cruising together in the Italian Garden, with the rejected Mallard drake hanging around sadly behind them.

The lone Mandarin drake trotted through the algae on the edge of the Serpentine. I haven't seen any other Mandarins for a few days now, but it does seem that the female is nesting beside the Long Water.

The Mute Swans nesting on the bank at the Lido had come down from their nest and were out on the water side by side, mirroring each other's actions in their courtship display.