The lure of pine nuts

A Blue Tit perched among rose hips in the Rose Garden and ate a pine nut it took from my hand.

A Great Tit arrived for its share.

The male Coal Tit in the Dell appeared in the big yew tree to collect pine nuts from the railings. These expensive little nuts are the best possible bribe for getting pictures.

Starlings preened and chattered on the Lido restaurant terrace as they waited to raid a table.

A Grey Wagtail ate a Willow Emerald damselfly it had caught at the Peter Pan waterfront.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine was on his current favourite branch in the plane tree. Fairly soon he's going to get bored with perching in the same place and move, and there will be a serious hunt to find him again.

Pigeon Eater, resting on the roof of the Dell restaurant ...

... was keeping out of sight of two young Lesser Black-Backed Gulls which had been begging at him. One of them may be his, perhaps even both, but they are supposed to be finding their own food now.

I thought the latest brood of Grey Herons were independent now, but when I passed the island there was the familiar clattering from their nest and one of the young birds could be seen. Whether its parents are still feeding it is unclear, it may just be trying it on like those young gulls.

A heron at the southwest corner of the bridge often perches on the top of a holly tree.

Cormorants returned from fishing to dry on the posts at the Serpentine island.

The single Great Crested Grebe chick on the Serpentine preened and flapped its little wings.

The three on the Long Water were wandering around separately and didn't make a good picture, but the Little Grebe chicks came out from the willow tree at the bridge ...

... where a parent was fishing a short way off. It's odd that we never see both parents looking after the chicks together. Probably we see both separately, but I can't tell them apart.

The Mute cygnet on the Long Water was alone again, and I couldn't distinguish its parents among the two dozen adults on the Long Water.

People have reported seeing a female Scaup, but I'm fairly sure that what they have seen is the Pochard x Tufted Duck hybrid, here seen on the Long Water.

The breeding success of the Mandarins has distributed them all over the lake. These two were on the landing stage by the Diana fountain.

A squirrel clung on tight as it reached down to drink from the Huntress fountain. The water is fairly foul, but the nearest clean water in the lake is too far away to be worth the hike.