Dancing at the memorial

A family of Greenfinches flitted around in the top of a holly tree by the Long Water. This is one of at least three large families around the lake.

Most of the adult Robins are tattered from nesting and feeding their young, but this one in the Flower Walk  is immaculate. It's probably an early hatched young one now in its first adult plumage.

A Wood Pigeon lurched around in the top of an elder tree by the bridge trying to glean the last of the berries.

A young Blackcap, photographed yesterday by Ahmet Amerikali in the same tree, was much lighter and so having no trouble finding fruit.

It's always time for the Starlings to raid a table at the Lido restaurant ...

... and for Pigeon Eater to come ashore at the Lido restaurant to grab his next meal.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull chased off a young one which had dared to perch on his landing stage.

Another picture by Ahmet: the young Grey Heron in the Italian Garden caught a small carp in the water lilies.

The lazy heron at the island was reclining in its favourite place on the wire basket.

A few feet away one of the three Great Crested Grebe chicks fell off its father's back ...

... and scrambled up again.

The female at the Dell restaurant added algae to the nest while her mate sat on the eggs.

All was quiet on the nest by the bridge.

The young Mute Swans were with their mother at the gravel strip on the Long Water. But you can hardly call it a gravel strip now, as it's overgrown with great willowherb, purple loosestrife and reeds.

A black Mallard drake rested at the edge by the Dell restaurant. These melanistic Mallard drakes, no matter how dark they are, always have a white front.

A European Drone Fly, Eristalis arbustorum, browsed on the hemp agrimony in the Dell.

A Chicken of the Woods fungus has appeared on a fallen tree at the northwest corner of the bridge.

There was Latin dancing at the Albert Memorial. I don't think Prince Albert would have minded.

The magnificent iron railings were designed by George Gilbert Scott, architect of the memorial, and made by the leading metalworker Francis Skidmore, who also made the canopy of the memorial which is entirely of metal. The railings were regilded a few years ago.