Cooler weather brings out the small birds

A female Blackcap was ticking loudly at an intruder which had interrupted her eating crabapples behind the Lido.

A Starling had won a chip at the restaurant ...

... where a Common Carder bee was browsing on the strange tubular flowers of what turns out to be a Firecracker Plant, Cuphea ignea.

A Long-Tailed Tit paused for a moment among the sloes in a blackthorn bush near the Henry Moore sculpture. It would have been after insects, not the fruit.

It was part of a mixed flock that included this Blue Tit in the adjoining hawthorn tree.

A Wren sang in the leaf yard.

The familiar female Chaffinch was waiting in a yew in the Flower Walk.

Pigeon Eater had gone to the Long Water again, and was on the posts at Peter Pan.

Maybe he was trying to get away from his annoying whining youngster. It didn't work -- he was followed.

The Great Crested Grebes at the east end of the Serpentine were feeding their chick. I think they only have one.

It's the same with the pair on the Long Water. In fact the father had just taken it under the bridge on to the Serpentine where there are more fish to make it easier for his mate to deliver her catches.

A Coot at the edge of the Serpentine had a really vigorous wash. Maybe it's a way of trying to channel their constant fury.

The young Mute Swans were using the closed swimming area at the Lido for their first attempts at flying. It will be some time before they get airborne.

Tom got an interesting picture of a Black-Headed Gull catching a fish.

He was also at Rainham Marshes, where he got this remarkable shot of a Spotted Flycatcher about to take an insect.

He found a Wood Sandpiper ...

... and a Wall Brown butterfly.