Three young herons in the second nest

Grey Heron chicks have a habit of turning out to be more than expected as they grow larger. I was sure there were only two in the second nest on the island, but today three could be clearly seen lurching about.

Starlings love mayonnaise, and a little pot left on a table on the Lido restaurant terrace gave them a chance to enjoy it.

The Grey Wagtail pair were hunting insects together on the edge of the terrace. The male is the one with the black bib, and it's he who has recently arrived to join the female who has been here alone all winter.

The male Pied Wagtail was by the island catching midges in the air. The avian pox blisters on one foot are clearly still painful and he was only putting it down occasionally.

A female Great Spotted Woodpecker climbed a branch on the north edge of the Rose Garden.

There are definitely more Coal Tits in the park this year. A new one I haven't seen before turned up in the bushes north of Peter Pan.

The familiar pair in the Dell flew into the corkscrew hazel bush. They are content to wait quietly while I put pine nuts on the railings for them.

The Blue Tit pair were chasing each other around and didn't stay still for a moment.

A pair of Magpies at the southwest corner of the bridge were also flirting and leaping from branch to branch.

This warbler was jumping around in a tree at the edge of the water. It seemed to be the size of a Blackcap but the colour of a rather dull Chiffchaff, and I can't identify it for certain. Here are two pictures, not altered in any way. It was in shade at the bottom of the tree which probably made it look darker than it really is.

The usual Robin here watched from the brambles.

The pair at Mount Gate were together in a bush. The female, on the left, is not noticeably larger, she's just nearer the camera and inevitably one of them is out of focus.

A Great Crested Grebe at the island caught a largish fish with a spiny dorsal fin, so that it had to be turned round before being swallowed. It wasn't a perch as it didn't have red fins, but its body seemed to have a reddish tinge so it probably wasn't a ruffe either. I am no good at fish.

A grebe was sitting in the reeds on the east side of the Long Water. It didn't seem to be nesting, just sitting on some reeds trampled down by Coots nesting nearby.

As usual there was a group of Mute Swans by the reed bed east of the Lido. The pair 4FYY and 4FUF, which are claiming the nest site in the reeds, were standing nearest the entrance to deter intruders.

The Black Swan ventured on to the Long Water, saw the boss swan watching from the Vista, and quickly left with a mournful hoot.

A Mandarin drake came over to the Vista alone. There was no sign of the female of the pair seen before. Maybe there are two drakes.

A windy day

It was a day of strong gusty wind. A Carrion Crow at the Albert Memorial was lying down to avoid getting blown about.

A Wood Pigeon enjoyed cherry blossom in a windswept tree at the Triangle.

In another cherry beside the Long Water a Long-Tailed Tit was collecting lichen for a nest, which is in the brambles beside the path leading down to the pond dipping place.

A Blue Tit perched among purple cercis buds in the Rose Garden.

Another looked out of a nest box by the Italian Garden. These boxes are old and dilapidated and the park management never think about cleaning or maintaining them, and it's surprising that the the tit still considers it usable.

The forsythia at Mount Gate made a pretty background for a Great Tit ...

... and a Jay.

The faithful female Robin was waiting on the railings as usual ...

... and her mate was along the path in a tree.

A Jay found a space between the murderous spikes of the Russian Olive in the Rose Garden.

Unsurprisingly, the Little Owl was staying inside his hole, but the male Peregrine was out on the tower. He was on the downwind side but even so was getting ruffled.

You might have expected the young Grey Herons to be keeping down out of the wind, but in fact they seemed to be enjoying it.

A pair of Herring Gulls at the Triangle would have liked to have a courting ritual but a rival suitor turned up.

The new ramp for the swimmers at the Lido has proved to be a popular fishing spot for herons and Cormorants, and today it was the turn of a pair of Great Crested Grebes. The space under the ramp is clearly a place where fish lurk.

The Coots' nest in the reed bed under the Italian Garden is getting larger and larger as the restless birds keep bringing reeds to it. There's no sign of eggs in any of the visible Coot nests yet.

The Mute Swans on the Serpentine were in a belligerent mood and there was a lot of chasing, with Herring Gulls flying along as interested spectators.

The Black Swan was near his nest by the landing stage with 4GIQ. I still don't think he's going to coax her into nesting.

The lone teenager at the reed bed by the outflow was with his father, who was building a nest out of cut reeds laid down for his use. The time is close when the parents will chase the young swan off and he will have to get used to an ordinary swan's life on the crowded l;ake.

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 Green 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.