Coots vs Cormorant

The Coots nesting on the post at Peter Pan have hatched some chicks. I took a picture of a peaceful scene, but ...

... a moment later a Cormorant arrived and tried to eat a chick.

One of the Coots jumped into the water to attack it.

The Cormorant tried to get in from the other side ...

... but was successfully driven off.

Only a few yards away, the chicks from the other nest were out on the water with their parents and would have been easy to grab, but luckily they were screened by the bushes and the Cormorant hadn't seen them.

Coots take turns to sit on their eggs, and they seem to enjoy it. This one had to be nagged by its mate before it would get off the nest.

A Grey Heron was sitting in the nest at the west end of the island, but we know too much about this vague and disorganised pair to suppose that they are finally getting down to breeding.

Egyptian Geese make a noisy display when they see another pair, but I couldn't see what this pair at the leaf yard were making a fuss about. Maybe they just felt like shouting.

The single Egyptian gosling on the south side of the Serpentine was with its parents. I didn't see the other families, but that was probably just chance.

The Gadwall drake and the female Mallard in the Italian Garden were feeding together in the irises.

The Mallard drake who is the odd one out in the trio is being kept at a distance after he tried to mate with the female Mallard. He consoled himself by having a preen.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond  was in her usual horse chestnut tree. Quiet calls suggested that the male was in there too, but he was screened by the leaves.

The pair of Song Thrushes by the Henry Moore sculpture were also nattering mildly at each other.

You expect to see Goldcrests lurking inside the dense leaves of evergreens, but this one was singing and leaping about in an open treetop by the Italian Garden.

Lower down, a Blackcap was singing on a winged elm.

Starlings have started nesting in the small plane trees by the boathouses. You can often get quite a good view of them feeding their chicks, so this is a place to keep an eye on.

A Great Tit looked decorative in the Japanese crabapple tree in the Rose Garden.

The first Reed Warbler has arrived, and was singing at the north end of the Long Water. I didn't manage to see it.