Part and parcel of city life

Kensington Gardens was closed, allegedly by an attempted terrorist attack on the nearby Israeli Embassy with drones carrying 'dirty bombs' -- explosive devices spreading radioactive material. Rumour is no more inaccurate than the stories in the media. So today's pictures were taken in Hyde Park, which at any rate gave a change from the normal route.

I went round the Hyde Park greenhouses, which stand in a large enclosure bordered by trees and pleasantly unkempt undergrowth. The most noticeable presence was quite a lot of Blackbirds, welcome as they have been sadly lacking recently. One sang in a treetop as the branches swayed in the wind.

Another was looking under the railings.

A Blackcap ticked loudly at a squirrel ...

... and a Robin looked down from a branch.

A Magpie perched above Epstein's lumpy relief of Rima.

She was the tragic heroine of W.H. Hudson's bestselling novel of 1904 Green Mansions, a girl of a mysterious white tribe in the South American rainforest who spoke the language of the birds and dressed in spider webs, not much in evidence here. I have tried to read it and gave up before the bottom of page one. The point here is that Hudson was a serious naturalist and studied the park, and this is his memorial. When it was put up after his death in 1922 several areas of the park, including the Dell, were fenced off as bird sanctuaries, and so they remain. The relief was much hated and people used to climb over the railings and paint it green. Now it only bears the grime of time and neglect in its overgrown enclosure, the fountains in front of it long stopped and the pool empty.

More cheerfully, a patch of green alkanet by the railings had attracted a handsome ginger Common Carder Bee.

Another Blackbird near the Dell pecked a large worm to pieces and ate it bit by bit.

I couldn't get in at Mount Gate, but the familiar female Robin spotted me as I passed down the West Carriage Drive and came out for pine nuts ...

... and the local Jay also arrived to take a peanut from the railings.

The male Peregrine was on the barracks tower, hunkered down against the wind and unwilling to look up.

Both the Grey Wagtails were collecting midges by the bridge. This one is the male. It looks as if they are nesting in the bushes at the Triangle, which is where the female was raised two years ago.

The nest seems to be roughly here, close to the bridge. There were three Grey Herons on the path, empty of people due because the tunnel into Kensington Gardens was closed.

A pair of herons perched among reed mace by the Lido.

Two of the young ones in the second nest watched as Wood Pigeons flapped in front of them.

Coots started to build a nest on a chain against a post at the bridge, a thoroughly bad place as Herring Gulls perch here ready to devour any chicks in an instant.

A Moorhen was ruffled by a tailwind as it looks for food on the edge of the lake.

In the Rose Garden the odd flowers of Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis, attracted a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee. The stripe on its abdomen seems faint in the middle and I wondered whether it was a Vestal Cuckoo Bee, but on the whole I think not.

Buttercups have come out in the rough grass towards the Dell.

Singing Goldcrest

A Goldcrest sang in a yew tree on the north edge of the leaf yard.

The pair of Coal Tits in the Dell were also in a yew, chasing each other flirtatiously.

A Long-Tailed Tit hung upside down in a tree near Peter Pan.

A Great Tit looked out from cercis blossom in the Rose Garden.

A Blackcap at Mount Gate was carrying a feather to line his nest.

A Song Thrush perched in a tree at the southwest corner of the bridge.

A Jackdaw was getting impatient on a dead hawthorn north of the leaf yard.

A Grey Heron fished under the willow by the bridge.

This nest on a chain by the island was originally built by a pair of Coots, which are good at making nests stick in awkward places. Great Crested Grebes probably couldn't have started it here. But they have taken over the twiggy nest and reduced it to the sloppy mess they prefer, and were adding bits of weed to it.

Somehow the Egyptian Geese at the Dell restaurant have managed to keep two goslings right in the heart of Pigeon Eater's territory. They passed close by his mate with the dangerous gull himself only a couple of feet farther away.

This Mute Swan sitting on the nest in the reeds at the east end of the Lido is 4FYY, the male of the pair. It's a sign that they haven't got eggs yet, as only the female -- in this case 4FUF -- sits on them. If he was guarding eggs while she was away he'd be standing over them.

Two interesting views of swans at the Lido by Mike Harris taken with his waterproof camera, at water level ...

... and below.

The Black Swan and 4GIQ were resting in the nesting basket at the Triangle, here seen from across the lake. They wouldn't be nesting in it, as they already have a place by the Diana fountain landing stage, and indeed no swan has ever shown signs of wanting to nest on one of these baskets.

Brimstone butterflies have been in the park for a couple of weeks, but they are hard to photograph as they are very active. At last one settled down to feed on a bluebell by the Vista.

And finally an Early Bumblebee has appeared in their usual place on the green alkanet near Temple Gate.

In the Rose Garden, a Yellow-Legged Mining Bee fed on a wallflower ...

... and a Honeybee was heavily laden with pollen on a Cuban lily (which isn't a lily at all, of course, or even Cuban: it's a type of squill, Scilla peruviana -- and it isn't Peruvian either, it's a Mediterranean plant).

Gathering midges

Both the Long-Tailed Tits nesting at the northwest corner of the bridge arrived carrying midges for their nestlings.

A Great Tit ...

... and a Blue Tit perched in different coloured hawthorn blossom in the Dell. The pink variety flowers later than the white one.

A Robin sang in the corkscrew hazel in the Dell before coming over to take several pine nuts.

Only the male of the pair at Mount Gate came out, which may be a sign that his mate is nesting but we've already had one sign that proved to be wrong.

A Grey Heron at the Lido has chosen the edge of a patch of reed mace for a fishing station, and is often seen there.

One of the young ones from the second nest stood on a wire basket at the island. You'd think it was a very uncomfortable place to stand but they don't seem to mind.

The Mute Swan pair 4FYG and 4FYX were behind it, busy with their nest.

The Great Crested Grebe pair displayed in the water nearby.

The nest in the reeds opposite Peter Pan seems to be a going concern after one false start. Will they succeed in raising chicks, or is it still too early in the year to find small fish for them?

The Coots nesting on the floating basket seems to have made peace with the Egyptians. It's quite possible that the Egyptians will decide to nest here -- they don't always use tree holes.

Another Coot has made a nest in a daft place on the end of the swimmers' jetty at the Lido.

The oldest Egyptian goslings on the Serpentine are now quite big and beginning to be independent, but they still can't fly and have to rush to the water when their mother sees a dog coming and calls them.

The five at the Lido were in a huddle near the edge.

This picture solves the mystery of where the Egyptians around the Serpentine Gallery and the Albert Memorial find drinking water. The Bulgarian fountain at Mount Gate was supposed to collect water in the bowl at the bottom for dogs to drink, but this has started leaking and the water has flowed under the concrete surround to make a large puddle.

The two Mallard drakes that have been persecuting a single female in the Dell had abandoned their rivalry for the time being, and the three were resting by the stream.

There's another pair here, who were wandering around together. The female will soon be nesting on the ground, a risky business but I haven't seen any foxes here for some time.

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.