Owl in the sunshine

A beautiful sunny day brought out the male Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery, who gave the camera a hard stare from the top of the old chestnut tree. His tremendous eyebrows keep his sensitive eyes from being dazzled.

The owl at the Ranger's Cottage must have been out somewhere, but I couldn't find it in the usual places.

A Song Thrush sang in a tree by the tennis courts at Alexandra Gate. The ugly racket made by the Iranian royalists can be heard in the background, but luckily the microphone is fairly directional and screens most of it out.

A Wren by the leaf yard came out on a twig for a moment.

The young male Chaffinch in the Flower Walk was calling from the new weeping beech tree that was planted to replace the famous old one mentioned by J.M. Barrie, which collapsed a couple of years ago.

The female Robin at Mount Gate ...

... and the male arrived on the railings one after the other. They were just beginning to have a flirtation and I was hoping to film him feeding her when a bunch of young oafs on electric hire bikes howled up the path, frightening them away and nearly knocking me over.

The cercis bush in the Rose Garden where the Blue Tits gather is taking a long time to blossom, but the buds are gradually enlarging.

The male Peregrine was on the tower by himself.

A Grey Heron moved around the little stream in the Dell looking for fish. This is a young bird from last year, still with a grey face rather than the black and white of a full adult.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine chased off a Herring Gull that was dogging them trying to snatch fish, and the pair had a little display to congratulate each other. It's the female who attacked the gull; both sexes behave in the same way.

The Black Swan chased away the proper mate of his hijacked girlfriend 4GIQ and returned to her triumpantly. She really ought not to be impressed with these antics, but one thing swans understand is power and she hangs around with him. However, she ignores the nest he has made in the nearby reeds.

The pair 4FYY and 4FUF were in undisputed possession of the nest site in the reeds east of the Lido. You can see the entrance behind them. The reeds are more trodden down, so they have certainly been in.

However, the boss swan on the Long Water is making a sad mess of things. He has the best nest site in the park on the artificial island near the Italian Garden, and he used it last year with his old mate to bring up their cygnets. But he was rummaging around making a nest on the shore in a dangerous place visited by foxes.

The Egyptian Geese with eight goslings were leading them up the Lido jetty so that they could feed on the grassy bank at the back.

The older brood of six at Fisherman's Keep was still intact, and so were the five at the Triangle, but I'm not sure about the family east of the Lido as they were sheltering under their mother.

The Mandarin pair were moving briskly up the edge at the island.

I'm not sure about this bee on a tulip leaf in the Rose Garden. Google Lens thinks it's an early Mining Bee, Andrena haemorrhoa, but it's by no means an exact match for the pictures of that species I could find.

However, this one is pretty surely a Yellow-Legged Mining Bee, A. flavipes.

The yellow wallflowers are beginning to fade, and a male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes, had transferred to a hyacinth.

Chiffchaff singing

Chiffchaffs are singing all over Kensington Gardens. This one was at the foot of Buck Hill, and unusually it stayed in the same place for half a minute.

A Blue Tit looked out from the dogwood bushes in the Dell, just beginning to blossom.

Ahmet Amerikali found the Cetti's Warbler at the Vista ...

... and a Wren near Mount Gate.

Magpies clustered in the variegated holly tree south of the Vista, always a popular place for them.

The male Pied Wagtail's sore foot seems to be getting better and he was running along the edge of the lake, though still limping slightly. Hecaught a passing midge, hardly having to reach for it.

A Little Grebe calling on the far side of the Vista gave a distant view which showed that there's a pair here.

They tend to lurk under the bushes at the edge of the lake, but you can see them in the open when they cross to the other side. As this one went, it kept looking under the surface to see if there were any small fish.

A Great Crested Grebe brought a twig to the nest in the reeds by the Serpentine outflow.

The pair left to go fishing, and the nest was immediately occupied by a Coot.

A pair of grebes can always get a Coot off a nest, but the Coot keeps doggedly coming back and usually wins the contest. Actually it would be a good thing if the grebes couldn't nest now. There aren't yet enough small fish to feed the chicks. However, if the Little Grebes on the Long Water were to nest (and a pair has nested before) they might manage to raise chicks as they have the knack of shaking a fish violently till it disintegrates and feeding the bits to the chicks. This trick has not occurred to their larger relatives, though they could easily do it if only they got the idea.

Another Coot was making a nest in a very silly place on the open shore.

The Mandarin drake that was with the pair on the Serpentine had gone off by himself and was at the Vista.

A Mute Swan at the Lido turned upside down as it had a furious wash.

Egyptian goslings are now turning up all round the Serpentine. There was the original pair still with six at Fisherman's Keep ...

... a pair with six east of the Lido ...

... another with eight at the swimming area ...

... and one with five on the other side by the boathouses.

In the Rose Garden a male Hairy-Footed Flower Bee flew to a wallflower.

Looking for backgrounds

A pair of Long-Tailed Tits are building a nest in the mixed hedge around the Ranger's Cottage garden. The nest is safely out of sight in holly, but the birds could be seen jumping around in a section of hornbeam.

A pink camellia bush in the Flower Walk made a picturesque background for a Coal Tit ...

... and a Great Tit ...

... who then followed me to a blossoming cherry tree and provided more photo opportunities.

There were plenty of Greenfinches in several places around the Long Water, including a group of six by Magazine Gate. This male was in the usual Greenfinch tree north of Peter Pan.

A Blackbird perched in a tree on the other side of the path.

A Jackdaw waited on a lichen-encrusted branch beside the Serpentine Road.

The older two Grey Heron chicks have been climbing out of their nest for some time, but now the younger three are also getting the urge to wander.

The two are now spending most of their time in the larger nest below the small high one where they were hatched. It's more comfortable and not so exposed to the chilly wind.

A heron was fishing in the reeds by the Italian Garden.

The dead willow that stood in this reed bed has now collapsed. A Moorhen stood on a branch.

The Great Crested Grebe nest farther down the reeds seems to be a going concern.

A pair on the other side of the lake rested beside an unoccupied Coot nest. They were probably intending to take it over. It's a great advantage for grebes to have a well made nest rather than the sloppy mess that's the best they can manage themselves.

A pair fishing together on the Serpentine took a moment to exchange courtesies.

A Coot brought a strand of dead grass to its mate to line the nest by the bridge.

There were five new Egyptian goslings by the boathouses, which their parents were taking to the water as a dog approached.

Twelve Shovellers were visible on the Long Water, more than usually seen here. I'm not sure whether they are flying in and out or whether some of them are simply lurking under bushes out of sight.

News has come in that the shop at the boat hire place is to close at the end of the month. They had been having a clearance sale for several weeks, so this doesn't come as a surprise. The policy of stocking luxurious frivolities at eye-watering prices was a gamble, and it hasn't come off. The Bluebird Boats people had the sense to sell a fair selection of reasonably cheap children's toys that were good instant buys to pacify a squalling brat. They also sold duck pellets for feeding the waterfowl healthily, but of course that was before the rigid ban of feeding the birds (of which no one takes any notice).

I don't think much of the way the pedalos are run either. At busy times they aren't getting enough ready and queues are so long that people go away. They close every Monday and Tuesday on a rigid schedule even on fine days when they could be operating profitably, but stay open on horrible days when no one wants a boat. Bluebird had the sense to respond to conditions, which must have been hard on the staff, but I would rather have worked for this humane firm than under the rigid rule of the park management.

The Bluebird staff cared for the birds, and if one was in trouble they would happily take a boat out to rescue it. Now, even if the official Wildlife Officer wants to use a boat he has to get written permission from a park manager, and by the time it comes a sick bird may have died.

Meandering?

A good selection of birds gathered at Mount Gate, but just the usual Great Tits and Robins, but a Long-Tailed Tit ...

... two Coal Tits ...

... a Jay ...

... and a Magpie under the currant bush.

A Blue Tit in the Rose Garden perched among budding leaves in a hawthorn. 

The Robin from the southwest corner of the bridge followed me to the Vista, taking pine nuts along the way.

Greenfinches were moving around in the trees north of Peter Pan. They have been breeding here for several years.

The familiar male Chaffinch was in the Flower Walk, dwarfed by the big leaves and flowers of a magnolia.

The official Kensington Gardens web page describes the walk as 'meandering', a strange word to use for a path that runs dead straight for 200 yards.

The flower patch in the Rose Garden made a pretty background for a Carrion Crow. It started as a patch of native wildflowers, but now this seems to have been forgotten and it's miniature narcissi and squills.

A male Pied Wagtail was hunting in the little waves raised on the Serpentine by a brisk wind. This is the one that had a sore foot from an attack of avian pox, but seems to be recovering and can now run though clearly it's still painful.

A female was a short way off on the boat hire platform, a good hunting place because the ridged planks retain bird droppings which attract insects.

The three Grey Heron chicks could be seen in their nest.

The herons in the park are unlike those anywhere else. They follow people around in the hope of getting fed.

The number of Cormorants seems to be going up, although the fish supply is still at its seasonal lowest. Seven stood on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan.

A female Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine carried a leaf to her mate, not to do a dance or build a nest, but just as an encouraging sign that they might do either.

I keep hearing the Little Grebe on the Long Water but have only ever managed to see it once, at a distance. However, Ahmet Amerikali was in Southwark Park and got a good view of one on the small lake where it's easier to see.

The six Egyptian goslings at Fisherman's Keep were enjoying a preening session. They're growing quickly, though far from out of danger yet.

Two Mandarin drakes and a female moved along the edge.