Black Swan gets the bum's rush

Greenfinches in a hawthorn north of Peter Pan were eating blossom buds full of sweet nectar.

A Blackbird was singing by Magazine Gate, but unhelpfully stopped as soon as I began filming him.

One of the Coal Tits in the Dell posed in the big yew tree. They know that if they let themselves be photographed they'll get pine nuts.

The Robin pair came out together at Mount Gate.

A Jay by the Italian Garden was waiting for a peanut.

A male Pied Wagtail hunted midges from a post at Peter Pan. This is probably the one more often seen on the posts at the bridge.

The male Peregrine was by himself on the barracks tower.

Pigeon Eater hadn't caught a pigeon to share with his mate for a few hours, so she contented herself with a light between-meals snack of midges flying over the water.

The Coots have doggedly rebuilt their nest under the Lido restaurant balcony which was washed away by the recent strong wind, and were hopefully mating.

However, while the pair were away gathering twigs a Herring Gull arrived and inspected the nest. This is a very dangerous place for a nest, right in the middle of Pigeon Eater's territory.

There's a new nest on a fallen Lombardy poplar by the Vista. Anywhere one can be built the Coots will be at work.

The Black Swan had ventured on to the Long Water, and was being expelled by the male Mute Swan of the pair nesting on the gravel, 4HDW. He was refusing to leave and having to be shoved my main force all the way to the bridge.

His girlfriend 4GIQ was sitting obediently on the nest he had made for her. It's a very large nest: perhaps size matters to female swans.

This year the pair on the Serpentine island have chosen a visible place to nest and we shall be able to watch events.

A pair of Egyptians with eight new goslings were guarding them closely as they passed the Triangle to go under the bridge.

Buff-Tailed Bumblebees have started to appear in the Rose Garden. One was feeding on a cercis.

There are also plenty of Honeybees out. Here is one on a polyanthus in the herbaceous border.

Usually the patch of green alkanet at the top of the stairs by Temple Gate attracts Early Bumblebees, but I haven't seen any there this year -- just the ubiquitous Hairy-Footed Flower Bees.

Egyptian goslings on the Long Water

There are certainly two singing male Reed Warblers in the park, with more probably to come. One could be glimpsed lurking in the reeds under the Diana fountain.

A pair of Long-Tailed Tits dashed around in a hawthorn by the Italian Garden. 

Some of the hawthorns by the Long Water are in blossom, making a background for a Great Tit.

A Blue Tit waited in new leaves at Mount Gate.

A Jay looked imperious by the Speke obelisk.

A Carrion Crow by the Serpentine had taken and eaten several peanuts and, not wanting any more for the time being, was burying the excess ones. I'm sure it will remember exactly where it put them.

A white Feral Pigeon was lying on the path by the Henry Moore, looking inert and pathetic. Just as I was thinking 'Oh poor thing, it must have something wrong with its feet' ...

... it got up and strolled casually away on eight healthy pink toes.

The Egyptian Geese which nest in a tree hole by the Henry Moore lawn have hatched six goslings. They brought them down to the gravel strip on the edge of the Long Water, where they could be seen from the other side. Parenting skills vary hugely among Egyptians and this pair are pretty incompetent, so the goslings' chances are not good.

The five at the Lido were feeding on the bank at the back.

Egyptians have reclaimed the nest basket where I photographed the Canadas yesterday. The nesting Coots remained unmoved.

The Black Swan was chasing his girlfriend 4GIQ's proper mate, as he does every time the poor swan tries to reclaim her.

The female 4DVZ nesting at the outflow got off her eggs ...

... to graze. I could see six eggs but am told that there are seven. Being large, they keep warm for quite a long time while the swan is off the nest.

A Speckled Wood butterfly sunned itelf on an ivy leaf in the Flower Walk.

The only bees to be seen were the ubiquitous Hairy-Footed Flower Bees, but there was a Dark-Edged Bee fly showing off its absurdly long legs and proboscis on a wallflower in the Rose Garden ...

...while a Common Drone Fly rested on a dead flower. It's really not much like the Honeybee it mimics, but even a faint resemblance gives it some slight protection against predation by birds.

Sunshine lit the Albert Memorial against a rainy sky.

Canada Geese reunited

A Goldcrest sang in a yew tree near Peter Pan.

A Jay ...

... and a Coal Tit arrived to be fed near the Serpentine Gallery. Neither has yet started coming to my hand, making feeding an uncertain business with Carrion Crows ranging over the ground.

The Blue Tits in the cedar on the north side of the Rose Garden are now completely confident.

Long-Tailed Tits take no notice of people, apart from one maverick in St James's Park which Mark Williams won over with bits of suet. This is one of a pair nesting by the Vista.

Both the pair of Robins at Mount Gate came out together, so it seems that the female hasn't started nesting yet. This is her mate.

The female Grey Wagtail hunted along the edge of the lake by the Dell restaurant, skirting an Egyptian Goose which has somehow managed to keep two goslings despite this being the heart of Pigeon Eater's territory.

The wagtail was constantly finding little larve and wormlike creatures in the debris at the water's edge.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were a few yards away, eyeing a Coot which was trying to keep its nest under the restaurant balcony intact in the waves. Recent strong winds have already washed it away once.

An anoymous contributor sent a picture of a young Herring Gull looking under the edge of a piece of newly laid turf. Crows routinely lift the turf, to the annoyance of the workmen laying it, but I haven't seen a gull doing it before. Either it has learnt from watching the crows, or the crow had previously pulled up tehturf and the gull was giving it a second check.

One of the young Grey Herons newly down from the second nest on the island is already starting to look for fish. The three are probably still being fed by their parents when they return to the nest, but are soon going to face the hard transition to independent life.

The pair of Great Crested Grebes often seen at Fisherman's Keep are enormously affectionate even by grebe standards, pausing for a display every few minutes.

A Mute Swan splashed down on the Serpentine, waterskiing to break the impact.

Swans have started nesting on the gravel strip on the Long Water, though the site isn't yet continuously occupied. This is good news for the Canada Geese on the swan nesting island, which might otherwise have been driven off. The Canadas in this picture are a different pair, just resting on the gravel. Once the swans get going they won't be tolerated here.

The female of this pair of Canadas was bitten by a dog last month and has been nursed back to health by Jenna. Now the pair are happily reunited on the lake and have claimed the Mute Swan nesting basket by the Triangle (which no swan has ever looked at). A pair of Coots started nesting there earlier, but so far the two pairs are tolerating each other.

The Egyptian family at the Lido had been for an expedition on the lake and were bringing their five goslings home.

Honeybees have appeared in the Rose Garden. One fed on a pansy.

But the commonest bees at present are still Hairy-Footed Flower Bees, which are everywhere.

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 looked like a Eupeodes but not the common E. luniger, as the yellow patches on its abdomen join in the middle. Or is it a Syrphus species?

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.