Pigeon Eater strikes again

As a young Herring Gull by the Dell restaurant innocently played with a twig ...

... Pigeon Eater had grabbed another Feral Pigeon -- he usually gets at least one a day -- and was killing it by biting through its spinal cord. At least it's a quick death.

Across the lake, the Czech Black-Headed Gull patrolled along the edge, squawking to warn away rivals ...

... while the dominant gull at the landing stage had been pushed off by a bunch of geese and was swimming around crossly waiting for them to go. His dark head is now almost complete.

When you see a close group of gulls whirling around and screaming there are always some Common Gulls in it, in this case two. You can see their distinctive white wingtip patches.

A Cormorant was back under the Italian Garden. It didn't seem to be catching anything.

Cormorants sometimes try to jump out of the water directly on to a post, but it's a tricky business and they often lose their footing and fall humiliatingly back in the water. It's easier to jump on to a chain and climb up to the post.

One of the Great Crested Grebe pair at the bridge had stolen a Coots' nest as a place to rest, and was having a confrontation with the owner. Neither of them was seriously trying to nest, the place was just a Coot day bed.

The newly formed Moorhen couple in the Dell seems to be keeping together for now, and they were preening at the small waterfall in the Dell stream.

The teenage Mute Swan on the Long Water, 4HTH, was with its mother 4DTT at the Vista.

Her would-be suitor 4GIC was being kept at a distance by the angry teenager, which didn't want the intruder going anywhere near its mother.

It was chilly, but the Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was out in her usual lime tree enjoying the sunshine.

The inevitable Jays picked me up here and followed me along the Long Water. The variegated holly tree makes a good place to attract attention, as a lot of its branches are dead and bare.

A Carrion Crow looked down from the sweetgum tree at the Diana landing stage.

The Robin at the bridge ...

... and both the Coal Tits were expecting service, but still only one of the pair is coming to my hand.

There was a distant view of a Great Spotted Woodpecker in an Italian alder on Buck Hill. It flew away before I could get closer.

The young fox on the lawn under the Henry Moore sculpture seems to have recovered from the injury to its front leg, and could put both feet firmly on the ground as it groomed itself in the sunshine.

Sunny, cold and quiet

It was a beautiful but chilly day but very little was happening, so today's pictures are a routine lot. But at least the Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery was out in her lime tree enjoying the sunshine.

As usual, I had to run the gauntlet of hungry Jays as I passed the tree.

A Jackdaw waited patiently on a sign beside the Serpentine.

The Robin near Peter Pan is being fed by at least three people now, and comes out of the bushes any time it sees a human pausing on the path.

The one at the bridge is also thoroughly spoilt by the attention it gets, but who can resist a Robin?

We've seen Great Tits eating pine nuts before, but I do like watching their delicate enjoyment of their little treat. This one was in the twisty twigs of the corkscrew hazel in the Flower Walk.

The Green Woodpecker at the Queen's Temple was visible again, hopping around in the grass. They are quite bold when on the ground but remarkably shy when safely up in a tree, which seems the opposite of sensible.

Quite a few people were braving the chill on the outside tables at the Lido restaurant, and the Starlings were watching from the weathervane waiting for their chance.

A Grey Heron stole a peanut I gave to a Carrion Crow but didn't know what to do with it. Annoyed, it chased off one of the crows.

Pigeon Eater was sunning himself on the roof of the Dell restaurant.

There are still a few Cormorants on the Long Water, clustering on their favourite fallen tree at Peter Pan.

A Great Crested Grebe teenager preened at the bridge.

It was not bothering its parents, who were quietly together by the willow, glad to be relieved of the long duty of childcare.

A teenage Moorhen and a parent browsed on the water plants in the baskets along the edge of the Serpentine at the Triangle.

The Black Swan was on the Long Water again with his Mute mate 4GIQ, begging for food at the Vista.

He showed off in front of her by chasing away another swan who was only minding his business.

The unfaithful swan

I wasn't expecting to see the Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery when I went out, as it had only just stopped raining. But there she was, tucked into a crevice in the lime tree and quite hard to see. When I went back later she had come out.

She passed the time by preening while she waited for the park to close and the people to go away so that she could start hunting.

Rose-Ringed Parakeets perched on a treetop by the Buck Hill shelter, absurdly conspicuous with no green leaves to hide them. When we had the Tawny Owl pair in Kensington Gardens and they were feeding their owlets, they used to hunt in the daytime. They would wait in a tree taller than the tree with the parakeets in the top, and when one wasn't paying attention they would sail out and pick it off. The parakeets have also been predated by Sparrowhawks, Peregrines, and even Hobbies which are no larger than them, but none of that kept them from multiplying rapidly.

A parakeet hanging a a yew tree at the bridge had taken four fruits. It chewed them briefly to get a bit of sweet juice, then dropped them. The ground under the tree was littered with fallen fruit and twigs the destructive birds had ripped off.

The female Chaffinch in the same tree was not amused ...

... and a Coal Tit had taken refuge in a bush.

A Blue Tit looked out from the yew in the Dell.

The Green Woodpeckers by the Serpentine Gallery haven't been much in evidence since they finished bringing up their young, but today one of them was looking for insects near the Queen's Temple. There is a clump of American oaks at the bottom of the hill where they perch, and they will be visible when the leaves fall off.

A Jackdaw requested a peanut on the bridge parapet ...

... and so did another on a post at Fisherman's Keep.

A flock of at least thirty flew over the Long Water. Their numbers are steadily increasing. Oddly, I've never seen a young one, while the young of the other three corvid species are quite visible.

A Common Gull preened on one of the plastic buoys surrounding the Lido swimming area.

There were two on the posts at Peter Pan.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull looked down from the head of the Big Bird statue. Every day sees more dark feathers on his head, and he will soon be in full breeding plumage while the others have barely begun to change.

The Cormorant that stayed under the Italian Garden has finally left, leaving the area clear for a Great Crested Grebe to fish. They will take quite small fish that the Cormorants ignored.

The Black Swan made another foray on to the Long Water unopposed and came back under the bridge in good order.

Thanks to news from Jenna we know why: the male Mute Swan 4HDW who was the new boss of the lake has done a runner. He was seen on the Round Pond, and now it seems that he has gone away entirely.

His deserted mate 4GIQ was at the Vista  with their teenager 4HTH. A male swan, 4GIC, was hanging around nearby till the teenager chased him off, not liking strange males haging around its mother.

It takes a long time for Tufted drakes to get the pure white sides of their breeding plumage. This one under the bridge was looking very smart in his new feathers.

Green Woodpecker by the Serpentine

A Green Woodpecker dug for larvae and worms in the scrubby enclosure at the east end of the Serpentine, where there is a monument to Queen Caroline for whose amusement the Serpentine was made between 1727 and 1731.

A Carrion Crow on a tree stump by the Dell pecked at a bone, the lower jaw of a squirrel or a large rat.

A Grey Wagtail hunted for insects on the small waterfall in the Dell stream.

This is the Coal Tit that comes to my hand at the southwest corner of the bridge. Its mate hasn't plucked up courage yet, but will fly down to the railings to take pine nuts ...

... though it's facing opposition from the aggressive Robin.

On the other side of the path a Goldcrest jumped around in a yew tree.

The Jays followed me all the way from the Flower Walk ...

... to the Vista.

The Little Owl at the Serpentine Gallery sheltered between two thick branches from the biting east wind.

A Grey Heron was fishing in the Dell stream.

The single Moorhen in the Dell, which lost its mate to a fox several years ago, has never made more than a brief relationship with any other Moorhen. But here it is friends, for the moment at least, with a young one hatched this year and still not quite adult in appearance.

These two Moorhens eating water plants at the Triangle are parent and offspring.

The two young Mute Swans on the Serpentine are no longer following their parents around. They barged into a crowd of geese eating some oatmeal that someone had thrown to them.

The Black Swan was by the bridge, and came over for his daily treat of sunflower hearts.

Greylag Geese chewed the bark off a willow twig. The bark contains salicylic acid, the active principle of aspirin, but probably they were not self-medicating but just liked the taste.

These are the three young Egyptian Geese on the Serpentine, with the undersized one on the right. It's still smaller than them and will be a small adult, but it's no longer a stunted little thing.

A single Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in the Rose Garden was clinging on to a baby sage plant. It was sluggish in the chill, but at least it was next to a source of nectar to keep it going.

Usually only young queen bumblebees survive the winter, but in sheltered places with year-round flowers such as the Rose Garden a few others may get through. I've seen normal-sized Buff-Tails, not the big queens, here in December, January and February.