Playing the tables

Two Starlings preened on a chair at the Lido restaurant as they waited for a chance to raid a table.

They found a table with two pots of delicious mayonnaise, and set to work. But before long they were rudely knocked off by a couple of Carrion Crows.

A flock of Carrion Crows swept around a tall lime tree calling to each other.

A crow perched in a plane tree with a background of yellow leaves.

A Jackdaw preferred a lime whose leaves were still green.

The female Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was in her usual lime. I still haven't heard or seen the male for some time, and hope he's all right. But male Little Owls do wander, and he may be a hundred yards away or more.

A Wood Pigeon, one of several, gorged on the ripe fruit in the arbutus tree next to the bridge. The fruit was plentiful and easy to reach, so it didn't fall out.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge appeared in the big oak tree where he was chasing the tits. They just dodge his attacks and carry on regardless.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits worked through the oak at the southeast corner of the leaf yard.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull stood complacently on the landing stage with not another of his species in sight. He monopolises the lake from the bridge to the Lido.

Two pictures from Ahmet Amerikali: a Cormorant in a pool in the Italian Garden grabbed a carp which was too big even for a Cormorant to swallow ...

... and a Great Crested Grebe caught a carp of perfectly sensible size on the Serpentine.

The Mute cygnet on the Long Water and its father were on the gravel strip beside a preening Grey Heron. They soon saw the mother being fed at the Vista and hurried over.

The trio of a Canada Goose and two Canada x Greylag Goose hybrids was also at the Vista.

The smallest Egyptian gosling, though still very undersized, is beginning to get primary feathers in its wings.

Gadwall drakes fed at Fisherman's Keep, showing off their quietly smart vermiculated plumage.

A Pochard drake preening at the Vista diaplayed vermiculations all over his back and sides.