Return of the Peregrines

The Peregrine pair were back on the barracks tower. Although I had seen the male here a few times in recent months I hadn't seen his new mate since July, and thought she had deserted him. She looks to be the same bird.

The Grey Herons on the nest at the west end of the island were changing places sitting on the eggs. The one that had been sitting flew off to catch some fish. When the heron sits down it can't be seen from this angle, so you have to go round the tree to get a shot through the branches.

A heron stood in the variegated holly tree at the northwestern corner of the bridge. A few years ago a pair started nesting here, the only nest away from the colony on the island, but nothing came of it and they haven't tried again.

The heron that fishes on the ramp at the Lido shook out its huge wings.

Pigeon Eater and his mate, both now in full breeding plumage, were side by side on the Dell restaurant roof for the second day running. They aren't usually so close. I wish I could find out whether they nest on the roof, but you simply can't see from anywhere on the ground.

A pair of Herring Gulls at the Lido were also looking smart with their fresh white heads.

The Mute Swans 4GZF and 4FUW displayed on the shore nearby.

Cormorants are still fishing under the Italian Garden, though they have made such a thorough job of eating available fish that there's not much left. Ahmet Amerikali found one with a very small catch that it wouldn't have bothered with a month ago.

The Pied Wagtail hunting on the edge of the Serpentine has seen me photographing her so often that she isn't worried any more. She ran past under my feet.

Jackdaws gathered on the slope above the boat hire building, waiting for peanuts.

Three Oriental Sweet Box bushes, Sarcococca orientalis, in the Rose Garden are filling the air with fragrance. They attracted a Blue Tit ...

... a Great Tit ...

... and a hardy but elusive Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, which wouldn't come out for a proper shot and soon buzzed off.

The usual male Chaffinch was in the flower bed below.

There are clumps of tiny Petticoat Daffodils, Narcissus bulbocodium.

A Coal Tit in the corkscrew hazel in the Dell was poised to whizz down to the railings for a pine nut.

The male Robin at Mount Gate came to my hand for the first time.

The female stayed on the railings.

By the time I get to Mount Gate on my usual round in winter the light is beginning to fail, and in order to get reasonable pictures it's necessary to reduce the shutter speed as low as possible. This makes for difficulty when using a 600mm lens at full zoom, and you have to depend on the stabilization of the camera to avoid getting a picture blurred by shake. There is a popular rule that you shouldn't go lower than the length of the lens, so that the slowest speed for a 500mm lens would be 1/500 second. That is quite impractical, and this picture was taken at 1/125 second. Some of the shots do get a bit smudged at this speed, but you can take lots and select the sharpest.

The first Grey Heron chicks

The first Grey Heron chicks have hatched in the top nest on the island. The eggs would have been laid in late December, and the chicks are already a few days old, now large enough to be heard clacking their beaks to beg for food. They won't be visible in this high nest until they are large enough to look over the rim. The movement visible in the nest is the other parent.

Jenna filmed this on her phone soon after dawn. A young Herring Gull had caught one of the two remaining Egyptian goslings and swallowed it whole.

Pigeon Eater was on the Dell restaurant roof with his mate.

All three of the top-ranking Black-Headed Gulls were in place: the Czech gull on his post at the east end of the Serpentine ...

... Blue 2331 a hundred yards along the shore ...

... and the one who owns the landing stage by the Diana fountain.

The Black Swan was obsessively following 4GIQ all over the lake.

The female Pied Wagtail was hunting near the island. Her mate flew by and she took off after him, and they sped away twittering at each other.

A Robin in a bush on Buck Hill ticked crossly at a Magpie and flew down into cover.

The Robin in the Dell was trying to monopolise the pine nuts I had put on the railings ...

... for the pair of Coal Tits, which simply went round it to collect theirs.

The Coal Tits at the southwest corner of the bridge ...

... and the Chaffinch in the Rose Garden are hesitant to pick up their offerings, and it takes some time to get them fed.

Not so this Jay by the bridge ...

... and Jackdaw on the Parade Ground, which swoop down instantly fro their peanuts.

The small flood caused by a defective drain at the Vista attracted a couple of Feral Pigeons. For some reason they enjoy sitting in shallow water, even on cold days.

A fox is often seen coming out to sun itself on a fallen tree opposite Peter Pan.

Works and days

The boss Mute Swan and 4DTT had a post-mating display on the Long Water. She still hasn't shown any interest in the nesting island, but no doubt the boss will demonstrate its usefulness to her by the usual ritual of ripping up plants and throwing them about.

The Black Swan has hijacked 4GIQ from her rightful mate again, and was with her at the landing stage. She really does follow him freely, which is not the way for a supposedly faithful swan to behave.

The lone teenager was with his parents again at the east end of the Serpentine, still not going near any other swans though the boss's six teenagers are now completely integrated into the society on the lake.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes displayed at the west end of the island.

In the tree above the nesting pair of Grey Herons were changing places. They take it in turns to sit on the eggs.

Pigeon Eater now has the pure white head of his breeding plumage and looks very smart.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull had been pushed off the head of the Big Bird statue by a Carrion Crow, which was clearly pleased with itself.

A crow in the wreckage of the Wasteland pulled up a bit of dead turf to see if there were any worms underneath.

There are still no interesting visitors here, but there's plenty of time.

A Blue Tit perched in an osmanthus bush in the Rose Garden ...

... and another was looking expectant on a bench.

Both Coal Tits were waiting in a rose bush ...

... and the pair in the Dell were chasing each other through the big yew tree.

The female Robin at Mount Gate came out on the railings.

This is the mate of the familiar Robin by the Buck Hill shelter, still shy and difficult to feed.

It doesn't take much to start Feral Pigeons gathering into a frantic mob. Wood Pigeons are fewer and slower, and you can see that what attracted both is breadcrumbs that someone threw down.

The familiar Pied Wagtail hasn't been visible for a while, so it was good to see her back hunting on the edge of the lake by the boathouses.

The broken water pipe in the Italian Garden has been repaired in just two days ...

... but work on the smashed parapet of the bridge has only just got to the stage of lifting the first stone 25 months after the accident.

Apparently the delay was caused by problems with insurance, though I don't know the details. You would suppose that the driver's insurance company would be liable for damage caused by him, and that they would have fought tooth and nail against having to pay millions for major repairs to a historic structure.

The Black Swan gets seriously annoying

Jackdaws are cropping up all over the park. This one was by the Serpentine Gallery ...

... and there were four in a tree by the Buck Hill shelter.

It's good to see that they have succeeded so well after their return to the park, which happened only ten years ago. The original colony left in 1968 when the Dutch elm disease wiped out all the elms which were their preferred nesting places, and they moved to Bayswater where they nested on roofs.

A Magpie waited in an alder near the Italian Garden.

Ahmet Amerikali found a Cetti's Warbler in the bushes east of the Lido.

A Great Tit perched in the Japanese crabapple tree in the Triangle next to the bridge.

A Blue Tit looked out from the corkscrew hazel in the Dell.

Coal Tits appeared in a cedar outside the north gate of the Rose Garden ...

... and by Temple Gate.

The male Robin at Mount Gate sang in a bush, then flew over to join his mate and collect pine nuts. They seem quite easy together now, but not yet flirtatious.

In the Italian Garden a teenage Moorhen preened on a disused Coot nest, but was turfed off by a parent that wanted the place for itself.

A Cormorant flew down the Long Water.

The Grey Herons sitting in the west nest ...

... and the upper nest were in place, and things seem to be going smoothly.

Ian Young found the Black Swan annoying the female Mute 4FUF at the Triangle. He really is getting unbearable.

After she indignantly left and went into the water he followed her all over the lake. She is the swan that was on the Long Water with him before the boss swan chased them both off. Meanwhile his previous reluctant girlfriend, 4GIQ, has returned to her Mute mate. He never seemed to be able to shoo the Black Swan when this aggressive bird was butting in, probably because he was afraid of it.

The boss swan and his new mate were feeding peacefully together by the nesting island.

Near the Lido a male Egyptian Goose tried to mate but fell off. A second try succeeded. The female was quite tolerant of his clumsiness. (Sorry about the soundtrack. The rubbish lorry arrived while I was filming.)

Egyptian goslings are bad at following their mother, and have to be constantly called to keep them in line.

The pipe feeding the lake from the borehole beside the Italian Garden has burst. The men replacing it said that the cause was a water surge from the borehole, and that modern polythene pipes weren't up to dealing with that kind of pressure. They agreed that the original massive Victorian cast iron pipes would have stood it.