Used to falling

When you see a Wood Pigeon eating berries in a bush you know it's going to overreach and fall out quite soon. But they are used to it and this one, only four feet above the ground, saved itself from crashing to the floor and flew up to continue on another branch.

A Song Thrush near the Physical Energy statue was gathering worms for a nest.

The usual Great Tit chicks were clamouring to be fed near the bridge. One of them noticed a clump of larvae in a web in an elder tree ...

... and helped itself. So they are beginning to become independent, which will greatly relieve their exhausted parents.

One of the Coal Tits at Mount Gate was playing peek-a-boo in the leaves. I didn't wait to get a better picture as they need to be fed quickly or they go off in a huff.

A Robin looked out from a bunch of leaves shooting directly from a branch on a severely pruned bush.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in his usual place in the top of the chestnut tree, as annoyed as ever by having a camera pointed at him. He quickly flew off. Perhaps he'll soon realise that it's harmless and relax, as the owls at the Round Pond have done.

The Coot nesting on the wire basket at the island is still there after five days without being evicted by a Grey Heron. Maybe it has a chance of success.

It's the same with the nest on the gravel strip on the Round Pond, an unsuitable site but the only one to be found in this open place.

The Mallard and her ducklings rested on the kerb.

The Mandarin family were racing round the edge.

A single female Mandarin cruised by the Serpentine island ...

... and there was a pair at the Vista, with the drake now well into eclipse and looking tatty. As far as I know there are one male and three females in the park, which is an unusual ratio for ducks. It also raises the question of who is the father of the ducklings on the Round Pond. In China the Mandarin is a symbol of married fidelity, but it looks as if the drake here has been having a bit on the side.

When it rains the middle of the lawn below the Dell turns into a swamp, to the delight of the pair of Mallards living in the Dell, which fly over to pick up flooded-out worms and slugs.

It seems odd that this patch of lawn is so swampy, easpecially as it's on a slight slope and the area downhill remains dry. It may be because it's on the course of a medieval water conduit laid to supply water to the monks of Westminster Abbey, which started roughly where the Dell restaurant is now, and perhaps some pipes remain and are still picking up water. These would have been hollow elm trunks fitted into each other and the joints sealed with pitch.

The Bar-Headed x Greylag Goose hybrid came over for some sunflower seeds. It's a regular visitor and remembers people who feed it. The matching orange bill and feet are very smart.

A Blue-Tailed Damselfly behind the Lido had discovered some aphids on a knapweed stem. It ate them remarkably quickly: I was shooting at five frames a second, and in the next shot all you could see was the aphid's legs.

The first Meadow Brown butterfly was lurking in the long grass by the Queen's Temple.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee fed on a Woodland Sage flower in the Rose Garden ...

... and another was bumbling briskly round and round to gather pollen from a Hypericum at Mount Gate.