Chaffinch singing

A male Chaffinch was singing in a tree near the Italian Garden ...

... and a Wren sang on a bramble farther along the path.

The Wrens in the Rose Garden are nesting, and Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of one perched in a rose bush.

He also photographed a Long-Tailed Tit bringing midges to its nestlings in the leaf yard.

The number of midges at the moment is phenomenal. A Pied Wagtail was doing its best to keep them down, hunting on the gravel strip in the Round Pond.

Since this strip was enlarged it has looked much cleaner. It used to be notably encrusted with bird droppings and an offence to eye and nose. Probably it's now being hosed down at intervals.

The Little Owl looked down from her lime tree. When I copuldn't see her on the usual branch she called to me. I've been resisiting what seemed like a sentimental fancy, but I'm really beginning to think she welcomes my daily visits. I always speak encouragingly to her.

A male Great Spotted Woodpecker called from a tree near the Speke obelisk.

A Wood Pigeon drank from a small puddle. All birds seem to prefer rainwater, however muddy, to the borehole water in the lake.

A Carrion Crow enjoyed a Wotsit, dunking it in the Serpentine. When I first saw a bird eating one of these garish orange things I was horrified, but then looked up the ingredients and found that they are made with real cheese and the colour is natural annatto, which is beneficial if anything.

A Grey Heron flew off with a slice of pizza which it had grabbed off a table at the Lido restaurant. A few years ago I photographed a heron here baffled by pizza, a wide flappy object which it had no idea how to swallow. This heron had learnt that it should stand in shallow water and shake the slice to pieces, which can then be conveniently picked up and eaten one by one.

Another was looking for more natural food under the collapsed willow by the bridge.

The five Coot chicks from the nest at Peter Pan were being fed on the waterfront, a place which encourages visitors to throw bits of food in for them.

A swan deliberately annoyed the Coot nesting under the balcony of the Dell restaurant.

A pair of Mute Swans were building a nest from dead leaves on the grassy bank at the back of the Lido. This is a hopeless place in the open and exposed to foxes, but there is a severe shortage of nesting sites and the swans are desperate. Actually it's just as well that there are so few sites, as the lake is overpopulated with swans and numbers are gradually increasing.

The surviving Egyptian gosling on the south shore of the Serpentine is beginning to get its adult feathers.

Three little goslings were by their mother on the other shore. They were in the Cockpit, which is the large cutout in the slope northeast of the bridge from which the clay for the bridge abutments was quarried. This is a dangerous distance from the water for young birds, exposed to loose dogs, and it was surprising to see them there.

A Honeybee ...

... and a Common Drone Fly fed on pink hawthorn blossom by the bridge.