Cetti's Warbler at the Vista

On a beautiful sunny day a Cetti's Warbler was surprisingly visible in the bushes by the Vista. Not only that, but it had a ring and it was possible to read it: BEF2112. I've reported it, and it may be interesting to see where it came from. No one is ringing small birds here in the park.

There was a Green Woodpecker in the tree above ...

... and a Great Spotted Woodpecker in a tree across the path by the leaf yard. It was very high up and I didn't get much of a shot, but Ahmet Amerikali found it lower down and got a good picture. It's a female, without the male's red patch on the back of the neck.

A pair of Rose-Ringed Parakeets were mating in a nearby tree. The male was unexpectedly enthusiastic.

Near Peter Pan, several Greenfinches could be seen in a tree. This is a male ...

... and here is a female.

A Long-Tailed Tit was collecting lichen for its nest in the top of the same tree.

A Magpie looked smart in a nearby cherry tree ...

... and a small group of Jackdaws arrived to ask for pine nuts.

A Blue Tit perched in new leaves in the Rose Garden.

The Coal Tits weren't showing well anywhere, but I got a murky shot of one deep in the bushes at the southwest corner of the bridge.

There was a Goldcrest in a yew tree above.

Starlings chattered on the umbrellas at the Lido restaurant.

The male Little Owl was calling by the Ranger's Cottage.

Katja reported another Little Owl near the Speke obelisk. We used to have a pair here until 2022, when the old chestnut tree they nested in was killed by the drought and they left. This may be one of those, or a descendant.

The young Grey Herons in the top nest on the island were climbing around restlessly.

A Cormorant at Peter Pan forced another off a post, just to assert dominance. It could easily have chosen the next post which was empty.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes mated on a nest they have built on the edge of the reed bed by the Serpentine outflow.

Ahmet Amerikali found a Little Grebe on the Serpentine, a surprising place as the wide open expanse of water doesn't suit their habits.

The Egyptian Geese still have seven goslings.

A male Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage

A Blackbird sang quietly to himself in a tree in the Flower Walk. They start singing later than the other songbirds and take a while to warm up, but it's worth waiting for them.

A Chaffinch and a Robin perched in a flowering currant bush near the Vista.

The female Robin at Mount Gate came out when called, looking untidy.

The Coal Tits in the Rose Garden were being difficult as usual but I managed to get a hasty picture of one in pink cherry blossom.

A Blue Tit looked out from a rose bush.

Wood Pigeons were eating myobalan blossom on the island. They eat a lot of flowers but take their time to consume each one thoroughly, so they do little damage to the tree -- unlike the wasteful Rose-Ringed Parakeets shown yesterday.

A bronze male Feral Pigeon on the edge of the Serpentine flirted with a black and white female, but she wasn't much interested in his advances.

A different pair of Pied Wagtails were chasing each other along the shore by the Dell restaurant. Both had avian pox blisters on their feet but it didn't seem to be slowing either of them down.

The distinctive high-pitched call of a male Little Owl could be heard coming from the lime tree by the Ranger's Cottage, and there he was next to a hole. I think this tatty old tree is completely hollow and the pair can climb around inside and emerge from other holes, where I've seen them.

Both the Peregrines were on the tower, as ever a wary distance apart. There is a practical reason for their standoffishness: at any moment one or both of them may choose to whizz out after a pigeon and they don't want to collide. You see the same thing on a much smaller scale with Pied Wagtails, also very swift hunters.

I've been keeping an eye on the upper west Grey Heron nest on the island, as there were frequent early signs of a couple wanting to nest there. Today you could just see one of them sitting. This is a one-year-old bird, still with a grey head, and it's been seen here before.

The large horse chestnut tree that fell into the Long Water many years ago has mostly rotted away and reeds have grown around it, but there are still some branches above water to provide a fishing station for a heron.

A Great Crested Grebe by the island preened in the wind.

The Black Swan was making a nest beside the landing stage by the Diana fountain, hoping to attract his reluctant Mute girlfriend 4GIQ. He chased her proper mate away earlier. It seems very unlikely that anything will come of this attempt.

She was on the other side of the landing stage, not interested in the nest.

The dominant Mute Swan on the Long Water and his mate were making a nest in a daft place on the bank by the Italian Garden, only yards away from where I have several times seen a fox. They have a good safe nesting island close by, and the male has used it before, so why isn't he there now? The boss swan has shown himself to be wonderfully thuggish, but his recent behaviour suggests that he isn't too bright even by swan standards.

While they were busy at one end of the Serpentine another pair of swans had crept under the bridge at the other end and were by the willow tree. If the boss sees them they will be chased away at once, but for the time being they were out of sight.

Destructive parakeets

Rose-Ringed Parakeets were eating pink cherry blossom in a tree at Mount Gate. Or rather, they picked a flower, chewed it for a moment to squeeze out some sweet nectar, and then spat it out and moved on to the next flower. In this way a few of these pretty but destructive pests can completely strip a tree of flowers or leaf buds.

In the cherry blossom in the Rose Garden there were a Blue Tit ...

... and a Great Tit with a passing Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.

The Coal Tits wouldn't pose here, but I got one in the climbing roses that completely surround an old tree stump.

A Robin looked out from the wintersweet bush in the Flower Walk.

The female at Mount Gate had a background of daffodils ...

... and a Blue Tit waited in the budding forsythia.

A male Chaffinch perched in the next bush.

A male Greenfinch sang his peculiar wheezing song in a tree near Peter Pan.

On the other side of the lake a male Goldfinch was singing in the top of a tall tree, not bothered by the twigs swaying in the breeze.

A Jay near Temple Gate finished the peanut I gave it in a few moments and asked for another.

The male Pied Wagtail on the Serpentine can put his sore foot to the ground and run if he needs to, but it's obviously painful and he prefers to keep it tucked up. There are now quite a lot of flying midges for him to catch in midair.

The female was a short way up near the Dell restaurant, looking at a patch of foam washed to the edge by the wind. This is formed naturally from fatty acids released by decaying organic matter, and is not a sign of pollution by detergents.

The Coots' nest at the bridge is getting larger.

The Mute Swans east of the Lido are now quite belligerent. I couldn't see who was chasing who, but the chaser is likely to be the male 4FYY who claims the nest site. His mate 4FUF was guarding the entrance to the nest to keep out other swans.

These are the same Canada Geese as I saw yesterday eating new willow leaves from the tree at the bridge.

The Egyptian Geese on the south side of the Serpentine still had seven goslings. Their father was looking suspiciously at a passing swan.

An Egyptian is nesting in a sawn-off tree a few yards away.

Little Owl at the Ranger's Cottage

A female Little Owl called in a lime tree by the Ranger's Cottage in Hyde Park.

This is where the parents of the two young owls more recently seen in Hyde Park spent last winter, though the young ones appeared in a broken horse chestnut 50 yards to the east and are still seen here by the gardeners when they come in at 6 am.

The magnolia in the Flower Walk is now in bloom, and hosting a Great Tit ...

... a Coal Tit ...

..., and a Robin.

The Blue Tits preferred a cherry ...

... and the wintersweeet bush at the Queen's Gate Crossing.

A Jay was ruffled by the breeze at the northwest corner of the bridge.

On the ground below a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was climbing on roots at the edge of the railings. There are some flowers here for it so it's not clear what it was doing, but it seemed active and healthy. Could it have been a young queen looking for a nest site?

Pigeon Eater's mate was back with him on the Dell restaurant roof. This picture gives a good view of the difference in head shape between males and females. He's on the right, and his skull is noticeably longer and flatter.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull at the halfway point of the Serpentine, Blue 2331,is getting the dark head feathers of his breeding plumage.

A pair of Coots were making a nest in the reed bed under the Italian Garden. They can make good nests out of either reeds or twigs, and happily use whatever is closest to hand.

The Mute Swan pair 4FYY and 4FUF were guarding their nest site in the reeds east of the Lido. They seem to be securely in possession now but they haven't started nesting.

A pair of Canada Geese came under the willow tree at the bridge to eat the green shoots, which are also much liked by swans.

The two pairs of Egyptian Geese by the Serpentine Gallery often have territorial disputes, mostly just shouting at each other but today a furious fight broke out between the two males.

The Egyptian mother on the south side of the Serpentine hurried her seven goslings to the water as a dog passed. It was only an elderly pug but they are right to be careful.

There are more Egyptian goslings at the Round Pond, one pair with four ...

... and another with three.

Three Shelducks were seen this morning flying over the Round Pond. They didn't land. These are very rare vistors to the park, and the only record I have dates from 1943.