The Diet of Worms

A Song Thrush picked up a worm it had hauled out and set off to its nest in the bushes behind the Queen's Temple.

A female Chaffinch in the hawthorn north of Peter Pan had caught a midge.

I don't think this male Pied Wagtail hunting midges at the bridge has a mate (he isn't the familiar one recovering from a sore foot). Perhaps that's why he was calling so insistently.

A Blue Tit perched on the lichen-covered branches of a dead tree on the edge of the Rose Garden.

A Wren posed on a bin in the Dell.

The male Robin of the pair at Mount Gate came out by himself and picked up all the pine nuts he could carry. It looks as if his mate is nesting now.

A Jackdaw near the Speke obelisk trotted up confidently to ask for a peanut.

A Cormorant at the Serpentine island found a patch of grass growing in a wire basket and made itself comfortable.

The Great Crested Grebe pair at the east end of the island rested together by the moored boats.

On the other side of the lake a male in his full summer finery finished preening and called for his mate.

This pair of Mute Swans was in the same place on the island yesterday. It's fairly certain that they're going to nest here, which will give a fine view from the shore.

A swan has come down in a fountain pool in the Italian Garden. It can't fly out, but I've often seen swans leave the Italian Garden on foot. First they rush over the water, crash full tilt into the sloping kerb, and flap out on to the pavement -- it looks awful but they are well padded with feathers and not injured. Then they lurch down the steps of the marble fountain, flop into the bowl, flop from there into the lake, and swim away serenely as if they did it every day. I have also seen one take off from the ground outside the garden.

The six eldest Egyptian goslings were wandering over the lake unsupervised by their parents. They are really out of danger now on the water, though dogs remain a threat on land until they can fly.

The sole young Egyptian to survive on the Serpentine last year is often seen by the boathouses. The swelling on its foot has almost completely subsided. It will always have a big scar, but it's walking and running perfectly well.

A patch of comfrey in the Dell was alive with bees, almost all female Hairy-Footed Flower Bees, which seem to be active later in spring than the males.

But there was one patch of bright ginger, the first Common Carder I've seen this year. It was whizzing around non-stop and this poor picture was the best I could get.

A hoverfly rested on a leaf. It looks like a Eupeodes species but not the common E. luniger, as the yellow patches on its abdomen join in the middle. Maybe E. nitens?

Much more ordinary, a Common Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax, wandered over a polyanthus in the Rose Garden. This is the first one I've definitely seen this year.