A visitor from Prague

The Czech Black-Headed Gull is back on the Serpentine. It's a dominant bird and I noticed it because it was shouting at some other gulls. 

For those who haven't been following it, I'll repeat its history. It was hatched on a lake at Hobšovice, a few miles northwest of Prague, in 2021, and was given the metal ring ET05.589. It migrated to Hyde Park in its first winter, presumably with some unringed gulls from the same place, and has been here every year since. In 2023 the park bird ringer Bill Haines caught it and put on a plastic ring, Orange 2V57.

The other dominant Black-Headed Gull was looking peeved at having to share its platform with some Canada Geese.

A Jackdaw trotted up at the east end of the Lido to ask for a peanut.

A Robin in the big yew tree at the corner of the Dell accepted some pine nuts thrown on the ground, the first time I've had any dealings with it.

The Robin at Mount Gate is a regular customer ...

... as is the old male Chaffinch, who today appeared under a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

A Wood Pigeon in the Flower Walk reached for pyracantha fruit.

A young one by the bridge was picking up stones to refill its gizzard. With their tough diet of unripe berries and stringy leaves they must get through a lot of stones.

The Great Crested Grebes under the bridge were transferring their single chick from one parent's back to the other.

A grebe by the Lido restaurant searched for small fish swimming just below the surface to bring to her chicks.

The nest halfway along the island is occupied again, but it seems unlikely that this bird is aiming to breed. More probably it's just resting. But this is a place to keep an eye on.

There were two small Moorhen chicks under a bush by the Vista.

A Tufted drake at the Triangle was beginning to come out of eclipse and get his smart breeding plumage again.

Joan Chatterley was at Walthamstow Wetlands, where she got this interesting picture of a Yellow-Bellied Slider terrapin coming up to the surface.

She also found a Migrant Hawker dragonfly resting on a leaf.

I was envious, as I had spent a lot of time vainly trying to get a picture of one. But I did find a Willow Emerald damselfly on a railing spike near the Italian Garde.

In the Rose Garden a Eupeodes luniger hoverfly browsed on a Michaelmas daisy ...

... and a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee visited a clump of bidens.