Great Crested Grebes fighting

The Great Crested Grebe pair at the east end of the Serpentine were patrolling their territory, head down in a watchful pose.

A male grebe from the island came the other way and there was a confrontation with the other male in fully flat threat posture.

Usually these faceoffs result in one contestant giving up and going away, especially if it's two on one. But this time neither would back down, and the male from the east end rushed at his rival.

The aim of these fights is to tip the other bird over and hold its head under water so that it has to submit.

The Black Swan was also in militant mood and chased a Mute male, probably 4GIQ's mate.

The swans on the Round Pond are always interested in the powerful jet of the water inlet on the Round Pond. The turbulence may bring up small edible creatures, but I think they also just enjoy the splash.

A Pochard drake cruised past the Vista.

The young Grey Herons in the top nest on the island were lurching about and flapping. Their flight feathers are not quite fully out yet, though probably already serviceable as a heron's enormous wings are very lightly loaded.

The male Little Owl could be seen at the Ranger's Cottage.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker probed the ground under a tree near the Serpentine Gallery.

A Starling on a nearby hawthorn shone in the sunlight. You can see that this is a female by the pink tinge at the base of her bill. On males it's bluish.

One another tree a Chaffinch uttered his notice call. This is sometimes called the 'rain song', but in fact it doesn't seem to have anything to do with rain and can be made at any time.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good shot of the Cetti's Warbler at the Vista.

One of the Coal Tits in the Dell was in the dogwood bush at the corner. They can be tempted out by putting pine nuts on the railings.

A Blue Tit perched sideways on a twig in front of the forsythia bush at Mount Gate ...

... and the single Robin was in the middle of the bush.

A Jackdaw ...

... and two Magpies were waiting for peanuts in a dead hawthorn on the north side of the leaf yard. They have got into the habit of assembling here and there are almost always several, as well as the usual Carrion Crows trying to get in first.

A distant view of the Little Grebe

There has been a single Little Grebe on the Long Water for more than a week and I have heard it calling, but never managed to get a sight of it lurking under the bushes. Today there was a very distant view of it by a reed bed on the Long Water.

The posts where the ill-fated tern raft was moored are still sticking out of the water, and make a perch for Cormorants.

A lot of the Black-Headed Gulls on the Serpentine now have the dark heads of their breeding plumage and some have already left for their breeding grounds, which may be as far away as Finland or as local as Basildon though they never breed actually in the park. Their courtship rituals have intensified, and now the female is sitting down to indicate willingness to nest.

A pair of Gadwalls dabbled in dead leaves in the shallow water by the outflow, where you can look down on to them over the balustrade.

The single young Mute Swan hatched on the Serpentine last year was sitting alone on the nest site in the nearby reed bed where it first saw the light of day. But it still isn't associating with any of the other swans. Having been brought up by itself with very attentive parents, it's socially maladjusted.

The Egyptian family, still with six goslings, had moved up the shore to near the Lido.

Pigeon Eater was looking immaculate in the sunshine by the Dell restaurant, with his mate on the roof above him.

The familiar female Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge. She caught some small and unidentifiable creature.

The Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage came out on a branch but was hard to see through the twigs.

A Jay looked down from a branch near the Queen's Temple, the frontal view displaying its Groucho Marx moustache.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge came out to collect pine nuts ...

... as did a Great Tit in a camellia bush in the Flower Walk ...

... and a Blue Tit in the Wedge-Leaf Wattle in the Rose Garden.

Chiffchaffs were singing but not coming close enough for a photograph. This one was taken by Ahmet Amerikali in the scrub behind the Queen's Temple.

Starlings at the Lido restaurant were frustrated by an inverted plate when trying to take some leftover chips.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee worked over pussy willow catkins near the bridge.

Martenitsas are appearing in the trees. This is an Eastern European tradition, and most of them are put here by the Bulgarians who live around the embassy in Queen's Gate. The red and white yarn signifies a man and a woman, and on the first of March you give it usually to a girlfriend or boyfriend who must then hang it on the first blossoming tree as a symbol of fertility. Since spring has come very early this year, no one has had to wait long to hang up a martenitsa.

A pair of Grey Wagtails

There was only one Grey Wagtail in the park over the winter. It stayed here because it had been hatched near the bridge, in the Triangle shrubbery. Now two have turned up and are hunting midges over the water, which are plentiful now. Maybe they will nest in the same place.

Here is one of them with a midge.

A female Pied Wagtail used a post at the Vista as a hunting station.

The Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage was in the same place as yesterday and the day before. The light was better, but it's still on the shaded side of the tree.

There are at least twenty Blue Tits in the Rose Garden. One perched in magnolia buds ...

... and another in the Wedge-Leaf Wattle by the gate.

A Great Tit waited in a pink-flowered cherry tree.

One of the Coal Tits at the bridge looked down from a holly twig. It takes some work to give it pine nuts, as it won't come to my hand and there are Feral Pigeons on the ground ready to grab anything dropped there. We manage somehow, but it would be helpful if it got a bit more confident.

Ahmet Amerikali photographed one of the Long-Tailed Tits carrying a feather dropped by Egyptian Goose. They find feathers all over the ground, but there may also be a dead bird in the bushes which they somehow manage to pluck with their tiny beaks.

A Robin posed grandly in the forsythia at Mount Gate.

Four Grey Herons squabbled over food at the Lido.

The young herons in the top nest on the island are restless and wanting to explore, but they aren't yet quite ready to venture far out of the nest. Even after they first come out they will return to be fed for some time until they are independent.

Pigeon Eater and his mate shouted at a Herring Gull that had invaded their place on the Dell restaurant roof. The gull refused to budge and shouted back.

It seems that washing, like preening, is infectious even across species. Egyptian Geese and a Carrion Crow were enjoying a splash on the Serpentine.

The Egyptians at Fisherman's Keep, despite constant vigilance, lost another gosling a couple of days ago and now have six. But these are growing fast and their chances of survival are increasing daily.

However, the ones at the Lido are all gone. It shows what a difference attentive parents make to the survival of young.

A pair of Pochards cruised past the Vista.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee browsed on a wallflower in the Rose Garden.

The flowers on the paperbushes at the corner of the Dell are beginning to wilt but there is still plenty of nectar for a Hairy-Footed Flower Bee.

Long-Tailed Tits' nest

A Long-Tailed Tits' nest by the leaf yard ...

... was a busy scene, with birds bringing feathers to line it ...

and pausing to preen.

Unfortunately the entrance is on the far side of the nest, so they can't be photographed going in or out.

A Robin was watching. It accepted some pine nuts.

This is probably its last year's nest, which would have been deep in the brambles but has been exposed by cutting them back.

The female Robin at Mount Gate was waiting to be fed. I don't know what she's eating in the last shot, not something I gave her.

Tom, Ahmet and I were trying to photograph the Cetti's Warbler at the Vista, which was occasionally visible but never in a place for a shot. However, here is a dramatic shot by Ahmet taken a couple of days ago when it was sunny.

A Wren hopped around in the undergrowth near the Henry Moore sculpture.

The Coal Tit pair in the Flower Walk followed me the whole way along, flying down to my hand for pine nuts whenever there was a gap in the stream of larger birds.

A Blue Tit was flitting around impatiently in the forsythia at Mount Gate.

Great Tits came out in the cherry blossom in the Rose Garden.

The Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage looked down from the edge of his hole, though the light was so poor that it was impossible to get a picture to do him justice.

The male Peregrine was on the corner of the tower, not a place he usually goes. It gives him a view down two sides of the building in case an unwary Feral Pigeon should be passing below.

A Wood Pigeon was eating leaf buds in a tree beside the Serpentine. They are full of sweet sap and the birds are very keen on them, but don't eat enough to do much harm to the tree -- unlike Rose-Ringed Parakeets, a few of which can completely wreck it with their wasteful eating habits.

Parakeets were wandering around Buck Hill eating new dandelion leaves, and there was a Stock Dove among them which seemed to be doing the same, though the picture shows it holding a small white object.

A Cormorant caught a roach under the parapet of the Italian Garden.

A Grey Heron came in to land next to it, to the Cormorant's annoyance.

The Mandarin pair had come down from the Round Pond and could be seen at the Vista.