Peregrines reunited

Both the Peregrines were on the tower. I haven't seen them together since February and was thinking that the male's new mate had deserted him, as wilful female Peregrines often do. It's good to see them together, but a shame that the tower in the Cromwell Road where they would nest is completely covered in scaffolding, so they don't have a chance to breed this year.

A female Great Tit called nervously, disturbed by a Magpie in her tree.

On a sunny Saturday the park was very crowded, and the small birds were mostly lurking in the bushes. But here are two recent pictures by Ahmet Amerikali, of a female Blackcap at Peter Pan ...

... and a Reed Warbler in a tree east of the Lido.

With young Grey Herons from the first four nests all out, they are all over the park -- and there are still two active nests with unfledged young. A young bird fishing at the boathouse yawned. Even patient herons get bored sometimes.

The statue of William Jenner has to put up with a lot. First he was exiled from his original position in Trafalgar Square by the military lobby who said he wasn't appropriate, and now here he is covered in spider webs with a disrespectful Carrion Crow on his head.

A crow at the Round Pond was clearly exasperated by the incessant begging of its offspring.

The waves raised by a brisk wind deposit aquatic larvae on the edge of the pond, and a Pied Wagtail was trotting along picking them up, occasionally blown sideways by a gust.

The Mandarins were resting ...

... while the Mallards were charging round the edge.

The three Egyptian goslings have grown into handsome teenagers.

At the Vista, Duncan Campbell filmed a Mallard drake performing his jerky courtship display to a female, who wasn't in the least impressed by it.

When people start feeding the Canada Geese on the Serpentine they get mobbed. Luckily the ones in the park are much less aggressive than those in North America, which would charge you and knock you over.

A Comma butterfly at Mount Gate kept a firm grip on a leaf as it was blown about by the wind.

In the Rose Garden a Small White fed on a catmint flower ...

... and there was a Meadow Brown on a verbena.

The big Shasta daisies in garden are popular with bees. Most visitors are Honeybees, but the first two short clips show little bees of the Colletes genus, of which there are many similar-looking species. They are also known as 'Cellophane bees' or 'Polyester bees' because they make a plastic-like substance to line their underground nests.