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.