A nasty shade of turquoise

A Grey Wagtail hunting on the thick smelly mat of algae under the Italian Garden found a noisome larva. It seems that the problem with blue-green cyanobacteria is getting worse every year, and only moderately warm weather is needed to bring the stuff up. But there's really nothing that can be done about this, as any countermeasures would wreck the delicate ecology of the lake.

A young Blackbird, still with some gingery juvenile feathers, came down to the Dell stream to have a drink and wash its face.

A Blue Tit ...

... and a Coal Tit were in a sycamore sapling. They still haven't found a comfortable place to perch after the wanton destruction of the corkscrew hazel bush.

A Robin at Mount Gate was probably one of this year's young ones, with fresh adult plumage.

One of the regular Robins in the Flower Walk checked the sky overhead to see if it was safe to come over for a pine nut.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was showing off the magnificent eyebrows he inherited from his father, who was the smallest Little Owl with the biggest eyebrows I've ever seen.

It's impossible to go anywhere between the Flower Walk and the bridge without being picked up by the four Jays insistently demanding peanuts.

You don't often get a Carrion Crow and a Great Crested Grebe in the same picture. They were at Fisherman's Keep, and completely ignored each other. They live in different worlds.

The grebes from the east end of the island were each taking care of one chick. These two were not far from their nest ...

... and the others were at the far end of the island. The chick seemed uncomfortably close to a Cormorant, but in fact I've never seen much conflict between the species. A grebe is much quicker off the mark than a heavy Cormorant.

A chick on the Long Water got too pushy with a parent and was chased away.

One of the young Grey Herons from the fifth nest was fishing from the jetty at the Lido.

They are entirely independent now, and if you see a heron in that nest it's always an adult.

A Honeybee browsed on lantana flowers in the Rose Garden.

I think this black bee on a Michaelmas daisy is a Carpenter Bee, some species of Xylocopa. It wouldn't pose for a better picture and soon vanished into the dense clump. Later: a good suggestion that it might be Andrena scotica.

The gaudy flowers planted to cheer up the drab view of the bandstand lavatories include this strange Bird of Paradise Flower, Strelitzia reginae.

Chiffchaff in an oak

A Chiffchaff was calling and bouncing around in the top of an oak at the Triangle, and by chance came into view for just long enough for one snatched picture.

In the Flower Walk, that look that tells you to put down the camera and produce some pine nuts.

A Blue Tit in the yew in the Dell was also expecting prompt service.

A Jay rummaged for insects in wood chips laid down around the statue of Peter Pan.

Starlings at the Lido restaurant waited on the weathervane.

The male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was on the usual branch in the plane tree.

At the Dell restaurant, Pigeon Eater strode up to chase rivals away from a bit of flatbread.

The Great Crested Grebe family from the north side of the island were by the reed bed east of the Lido.

The young Moorhen by the island looked round from the kerb. It's getting its adult yellow legs.

Cormorants clustered on the fallen poplar on the east side of the Vista.

It was a busy scene, with the Black Swan and 4GIQ at the edge ...

... and the single cygnet alone as usual, with no sign of its parents who were last seen on the other side of the bridge.

A Red-Crested Pochard drake, now in his smart breeding plumage, washed and preened, fluffing up his ginger bouffant with a foot.

A Tufted drake was well on his way to full breeding plumage with bright white sides.

More Shovellers have arrived.

The fox by the Vista is now well used to people leaning over the railings and throwing him food, and doesn't flinch even when a dog goes by, safely kept away by the railings.

A squirrel in the Dell reached down a willow twig to eat the tender leaves at the tip. Willow leaves are also liked by swans and geese.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on Michaelmas daisies in the Rose Garden.