At last, a Great Crested Grebes' nest

The Great Crested Grebes on the lake have been delaying nesting for a very long time, but finally a pair have got around to it on a chain at the east end of the Serpentine island. It's an uncomfortably exposed spot but a nest here has succeeded in the past. The grebes can't nest in the spring as they have to wait for there to be enough small fish to feed their young.

There were a few more grebes on the lake which had probably arrived last night.

The Coot nesting on the wire basket by the bridge has failed for the third time. There were eggs in the nest but these have gone, and the Coot had only just been able to return to the nest after a Grey Heron had commandeered it for a fishing station. This happens year after year, but Coots never give up ...

... and hope springs eternal, for another pair have just made a nest on the chain at the other end of the bridge.

A Tufted drake stood tall and jerked his head,  trying to coax a female into mating. She wasn't in the least impressed.

The heron that hangs around the Lido restaurant was on an umbrella, waiting to make a lightning raid on a vacated table.

Pigeon Eater, in his usual place on the Dell restaurant, was being annoyed by Carrion Crows.

At the Round Pond another Lesser Black-Backed Gull was having a go at catching Feral Pigeons, without success.

This is not the gull I filmed doing the same thing the day before yesterday. The habit is spreading, perhaps influenced by the skill of the original Pigeon Eater, but also because Lesser Black-Backs will have a go at anything if they think they can catch it.

A check on the Mandarins found them in good order.

There's always a wind at the exposed Round Pond, and a Red-Veined Darter dragonfly had to cling to a grass stem and fly on the spot to avoid being blown away.

David Element and Neil Philips were here to photograph dragonflies and other creatures, and one of the things they found was a very young newt. It's too small to tell whether it's a Palmate Newt or a Smooth Newt.

Neil  remarked, 'I call him Tiny because he's my newt.' Universal groans.

He got a fine picture of a Lesser Emperor dragonfly on the chain at the bridge, one of several that were here ...

... and of a Song Thrush, a bit stained by eating ripe blackberries, which was looking for insects for its young in a nest in a tree near the Queen's Temple.

Also on the railings was the younger of the two male Chaffinches that regularly come for pine nuts ...

... and there was a family of Long-Tailed Tits in a holly tree. This is one of the teenagers, now hunting independently.

In the Flower Walk the same Wren was zooming around nattering angrily, unable to bring a spider to its nest because there was a Magpie watching.

A Jackdaw by the Henry Moore sculpture trotted up to request a peanut.

People were feeding Rose-Ringed Parakeets near the Steiner bench, and several young ones could be seen.

Three Buff-Tailed Bumblebees crowded into a dahlia in the Italian Garden.