Swan nest at the Lido restaurant

The Mute Swans nesting by the Lido resturant terrace now have seven eggs. It's an uncomfortably public place but they are protected by a temporary fence.

A pair of Coots have cheekily built a nest in front of the swans' nest in the Diana fountain reed bed. They stand a reasonable chance of being left alone. Swans consider Coots beneath their attention.

The seven Coot chicks in the irises in the Italian Garden fountain were milling around as their parents brought food.

A Moorhen stared seriously from the reed bed at the east end of the Serpentine.

The eight Egyptian goslings at the Round Pond huddled together against the cold wind.

The pair at the Triangle which I saw yesterday sheltering goslings have four.

The lone survivor from the south shore had crossed the lake with its parents, and they were by one of the small boathouses.

One of the Mandarin drakes came ashore at the Vista. Both of them know that passers by, struck by their gorgeous plumage, will offer them food.

You can never get a good view of what's going on in the top Grey Heron nest on the island, but what you can see shows that the three young are now adult sized and hungrier than ever.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were displaying to each other again. She is certainly going to be nesting soon.

An early returning Black-Headed Gull perched on the old water level at Fisherman's Keep. It still has traces of juvenile plumage and will have been too young to breed.

The female Little Owl at the Round Pond was kept inside by the wind for most of the day, but came out in the lime tree in the late afternoon when it became calmer.

The Robins on the north side of the Rose Garden are certainly nesting. The male appeared in a hawthorn tree with a midge, which he carried into a bush.

He came out to ask for pine nuts, which he also took inside.  He is doing his duty by his mate.

The Blue Tits here are also a pair, but I don't think they're nesting yet.

A Long-Tailed Tit near the bridge certainly was, as it was delivering a small spider.

And so was a Blackcap at the leaf yard, which was dashing around furiously ticking at an intruding Mapgpie.

The electric pump for the waterfall in the Dell is working again. Some new Cordyline cabbage palms have been planted in the foreground, continuing the theme of subtropical plants that was started when the Dell was landscaped in he 1880s.

However, the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden has stopped, hit by a general power failure which has also closed the public toilets. It looks as if the work to remove the old and unused underground power cable across the north side has pulled something loose, and several holes have been dug in a so far unsuccessful effort to find the break.