The Coots' peaceful place

The Serpentine shore by the Triangle is a place where Coots can congregate and wash and preen, and there seems to be a rule that there is no fighting here though elsewhere they attack each other incessantly.

However, a Great Crested Grebe chick amused itself by annoying them. This is the one from the nest at the bridge.

The two from the east end of the island waited by a blue plastic boat where a parent was fishing in the shadows underneath.

A grebe already in winter plumage was dozing peacefully by the shore. 

It was disturbed by a Moorhen walking past and looked round crossly.

It had a preen before settling back to sleep.

The Common Gull at the Lido has established itself on the solar panel while it waits for others to arrive.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull was strolling up and down its territory at Fisherman's Keep, with all rivals banished a hundred yards away.

A young Grey Heron fished under the willow by the bridge.

The number of Cormorants is going down at last, but there are still a lot of them. Three were on the fallen poplar at Peter Pan, along with Black-Headed Gulls and a dozing Gadwall.

The lone young Mute Swan is now fully grown and its wings are developed. It needs to do some flying practice before it will be safe from the killer swan, but has shown no sign of wanting to. The six young cygnets on the Long Water, after a few brief rushes, have also subsided into idleness. Maybe the next windy day will get them all going.

A Wren emerged briefly in the reeds by the Italian Garden.

Long-Tailed Tits dashed about in the bushes at the east end of the Lido.

A Blue Tit waited to be fed on a cercis leaf in the Rose Garden ...

... and a Coal Tit perched on the frame of the pergola.

The local Robin was in a rose bush.

A few Honeybees were still out. One climbed over a cream rose.

A final rendezvous with the Robin at Mount Gate before going home.

Grebe catches a fish

A Great Crested Grebe was fishing under the parapet at the Serpentine outflow, and although the water was murky and the light dim you could see what it was doing.

It caught a perch ...

... surfaced ...

... and ate it. It has to be said that the fish looks most unhappy.

A young Herring Gull had somehome managed to tear up a plastic water bottle and was playing with a strip of it.

Pigeon Eater was refelected in the calm water.

A Carrion Crow bathed in the lake, climbed out, and shook itself dry.

A Grey Wagtail was hunting insects in the fallen leaves at the Lido.

It caught a midge.

A Blue Tit at Mount Gate neatly pecked bits out of a pine nut it took from my hand.

The usual Robin was there too, but for a change here is one on a bench in the Rose Garden ...

... where there was also a Great Tit in a clump of abelia ...

... and a Coal Tit in a rose bush. I hadn't seen this bird for several months, but it remembered me and came straight over to take a pine nut.

The Coal Tit in the Dell was lurking on a yew twig.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling on the island, but it wouldn't come into sight. However, when I was photographing the tree it was on I saw this group of holes. I'm sure that at least some of them are too small for a Great Spotted. A Lesser Spotted has been occasionally seen in the park, beside the greenhouses and more recently at Mount Gate.

You never know where a Jackdaw is going to turn up, and this one was at the northwest corner of the bridge.

It was quite a chilly day, but the tough Buff-Tailed Bumblebees in the Rose Garden were still busy on the Shasta daisies.

The 1916 Dennis Model N fire engine belonging to the Royal College of Science Motor Club at Imperial College, nicknamed Jezebel, is still in fine working order except for a radiator leak and a tendency to eat big end bearings (which the undergraduates now cast themelves). It's often driven up to the Serpentine for a session with the pump.

An occasional Goldfinch

There are oddly few Goldfinches in the park, though they are a common sight in the streets. When there are any here they're usually on the plane trees between the Rose Garden and Rotten Row, and there was just one twittering on a high branch today.

Inside the garden a Robin was in a bad mood in a rose bush. I had been so besieged by Great Tits that I had no pine nuts left and could only offer it peanuts, which it indignantly refused.

A Blue Tit was happy to take one ...

... and so was a Great Tit in a holly tree by the bridge.

Long-Tailed Tits were busy at the east end of the Lido. There are usually some here, and they nest in the nearby shrubberies.

A Wood Pigeon lurched about in a holly in the Dell trying to reach the berries.

Carrion Crows pulled the innards out of a dead pike washed up at the Lido.

Another looked askance at an agave in an urn at the Italian Garden.

Pigeon Eater surveyed his kingdom from the Dell restaurant roof.

A young Herring Gull at Fisherman's Keep played with a conker, ate a peanut, and had trouble with a Carrion Crow but routed it.

We've een odd couples of Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-Backs here before, but this is a new one as the Herring Gull is still young.

This pair of Black-Headed Gulls displaying noisily just along the shore is not the one I filmed yesterday, as those were both adult and one of these still has some juvenile plumage.

The Czech gull may lord it over the other Black-Headed Gulls, but even on his own territory he is no match for a Moorhen.

This one hasn't come nearly so far. It's an Essex gull raised on the rubbish dump at Pitsea.

The Common Gull at the Lido hasn't yet been joined by any others.

The Great Crested Grebes are changing into winter plumage.

The single Mute cygnet was at the Serpentine outflow with its father. So far they have avoided confrontation with the killer swan.

First returning Common Gull

The first returning Common Gull of the year was at the Lido, perching on the solar panel or one of the buoys.

Every time I see this pair of Black-Headed Gulls displaying on the Serpentine they are louder.

A young Herring Gull on the Round Pond played with a bit of rotten wood from a dead tree.

The Black Swan was here, preening ...

... and you can usually rely on finding some Pied Wagtails.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge is now a regular customer ...

... and fortunately the one at Mount Gate has forgiven me for not being there yesterday.

A Blue Tit investigated oak leaves, looking for larvae. Next year's leaf buds are already developing.

Three good close-ups from Battersea Park by Ahmet Amerikali: a Cetti's Warbler, very hard to capture  ...

... a Firecrest on a twig of Japanese barberry ...

... and a Goldcrest. These seem to live quite amicably beside the two pairs of Firecrests.

The Cormorants at the west end of the Serpentine island are jam-packed on to every available perch ...

... with the overflow stacked in the dead tree at the other end.

The Great Crested Grebes from the nest at the Dell restaurant were temporarily unbothered by their chick, and were relaxing by the shore.

A young Moorhen paddled over fallen leaves at the Vista ...

... which provided a setting for some of the numerous Pochards on the far side of the lake.

Some of the Tufted drakes are now back in breeding plumage. 

This pair of Egyptian Geese washing beside a boathouse have the only surviving young one on the main lake this year.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in the Rose Garden poked a hole in a baby sage flower to extract the nectar.