Pied Wagtail at the Round Pond

A Pied Wagtail hunted insects on the grass by the Round Pond. They are almost always to be seen here and probably nest in crevices in the old brickwork of Kensington Palace, where I have seen them flying on to the roof.

I had gone there to check on two things. One was whether the Black Swan, who has left the Serpentine, had returned to the pond, and there he was on the gravel strip.

The other was to try to find the Little Owls, who had spent some time in a lime tree after their original tree was burnt out. After a few weeks they abandoned it, and as far as I know no one has found them again. I certainly didn't.

However, here is a good view of the female Little Owl in Hyde Park, taken by Robin Pettitt.

A Wren came out in the flower bed at the east end of the Lido.

A Robin in the Rose Garden stayed in a bush. This isn't one of the familiar ones, but there are at least six here all singing at each other.

It wouldn't be a proper day without feeding the Robin at Mount Gate ...

... and the Coal Tit in the Dell.

There was a Blue Tit in the same yew tree ...

and another one in the red leaves of the cockspur thorn tree at Mount Gate.

A Great Tit perched in a rowan near the Queen Caroline monument at the east end of the Serpentine.

An exotic visitor: a Red-and-Green Macaw having an outing with his human in the Rose Garden.

A Cormorant perched on a strangely massive handrail which has been installed to help bathers get out of the water at the Lido. There was what seemed a perfectly good rail here but it was condemned for some obscure health and safety reason and this thing, which would support an elephant, substituted.

One of the small boathouses is a popular fishing spot for Cormorants. Its apparently solid brick walls actually rest on reinforced concrete beams which extend only just below water level, so Cormorants and Great Crested Grebes can dive inside and catch the fish which lurk in the shadows.

The grebe chicks at the east end of the island are mostly fed with fish caught under the moored boats.

The single chick from the nest by the bridge raced over to collect a perch.

A pair of Egyptian Geese had a wash and preen together on the edge of the Serpentine.

I don't know what this Tufted Duck is carrying. It looks like a light coloured fig, but who feeds figs to ducks? Anyway she seemed to like it, and was hurrying away to find a quiet place to eat it.

Common Wasps ripped chunks out of a caterpillar in the Rose Garden. They weren't eating it themselves, as adult wasps have an entirely liquid diet. They were taking the bits to their nest to feed their larvae.