Panic in the Rose Garden

A colder day with a keen east wind makes the small birds hungrier, and Great Tits, Blue Tits and Coal Tits in the Flower Walk were keen to take pine nuts from my hand.

The familiar Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge ...

... and one of the Coal Tit pair hurried up the top of the steps before I reached their usual feeding place.

The female Robin at Mount Gate still has to be called before she comes out on the railings. It's a ritual now, and she's accustomed to it.

A pair of Long-Tailed Tits bounced about in a tree by the Vista. They're seen in pairs and no longer in winter flocks as the nesting season approaches.

I was photographing a Blue Tit in the Rose Garden ...

... when suddenly the small birds dispersed in all directions in an explosion of panic. They had seen a Sparrowhawk, which swooped down at their bush. Luckily it didn't get any of them. It flew up and perched in a plane tree.

This is a young bird, as you can tell from the coarse barring on its front. I couldn't find where the usual pair at the police station nested last year, as the old Magpie nest they used to use had fallen to piece. But it's clear that they did nest.

The scattered feathers of a Feral Pigeon at the Triangle showed where a Sparrowhawk had struck earlier.

A Magpie perched on a stump by the Long Water, with gorse blossom in the background.

A Jay looked expectant in a tree farther along the path.

Jackdaws lined the Serpentine Road.

You can never tell whether gulls are courting or about to shoo a rival. Three young Herring Gulls seemed to be a pair ousting a third, and sitting down is a sign of assent, but then they too chased each other.

The single Great Crested Grebe at the island refuses to be budged by the pair. After they shoo it, it simply returns to its usual place.

Coots are rebuilding the nest south of Peter Pan, usually a successful site.

A Coot made itself comfortable on the swan nesting basket at the Triangle. Geese, ducks and herons have used this basket but I've never seen a Mute Swan interested in it.

Miniature daffodils in the Rose Garden are barely larger than buttercups.

I thought this growth on a fallen tree trunk near the Henry Moore sculpture might be a Chicken of the Woods that had been partly eaten by a squirrel, but it isn't the season. Google Lens says it's a Dog Vomit Slime Mould, Fuligo septica, and indeed there is an unmistakable patch of that on a log a short way off, but it's a different strain, bright yellow and hugging the surface.

The official mind at work: how to get the word 'issue' three times into a 38-word notice.

Three woodpeckers

There were three woodpeckers on view today.

Green Woodpeckers are very timid when they're safe up trees, and go round to the back of the branch if they see you pointing a camera at them. On the ground they are fearless, perhaps believing themselves well camouflaged in the grass, and this one came right up to me as it searched for edible creatures.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker climbed around a tree on Buck Hill, looking for larvae in the bark.

There was another at the edge of the leaf yard. This was an awkward video to get, at great distance and in bad light -- sorry it's so grainy.

Both the Peregrines were on the tower. I could only get a picture from the far side of the lake before they flew away, but it's of slight interest because the male, on the right, can be seen eating a pigeon.

Pigeon Eater was off hunting, but his mate was keeping his place on the Dell restaurant roof.

A Common Gull perched on the buoys at the Lido. Numbers have gone down considerably. They arrive late and leave early.

The Grey Heron pair in the nest at the west end of the island were still looking into the bottom of the nest. I took pictures from every available angle and still couldn't see what was going on.

A Carrion Crow rinsed something in the water flooding out of the broken drain at the Vista. It looked like the remains of a frog.

Jackdaws lined the path between Peter Pan and the Italian Garden. The flock ranges widely and you never know where they will turn up.

The female Pied Wagtail whizzed past and landed on the roof of the boat hire building. This is a good place for insects, probably attracted by bird droppings, and you often see wagtails hunting there.

A Blue Tit in the Rose Garden had found a small larva on a rose bush.

A Coal Tit waited on another bush.

This is the mate of the familiar Robin by the Buck Hill shelter, singing in a tree. It's still shy and you can't feed it.

The female Robin at Mount Gate perched among withered wintersweet flowers.

The female Great Crested Grebe of the pair by the bridge was fishing at the Triangle.

A pair of Shovellers fed on the edge of the reed bed by the Italian Garden.

Vanishing parakeets

The number of Rose-Ringed Parakeets has fallen recently. Today and yesterday the only ones I saw were a pair in the Dell. It seems odd not to have a constant background noise of their shrieking. Have they left to breed outside the park?

However, these have been enough of a nuisance to the usual inhabitants of the corkscrew hazel. The aggressive Robin was hanging on, but had to stay on the other side of the bush.

The male Robin at Mount Gate came out of his dogwood bush to take three pine nuts, then went back to sing.

The two Coal Tits here are thinking about coming to my hand, but haven't quite plucked up courage yet. They probably will in the next few days, and will be pleased to find that they can get more food more easily.

There's no problem for the Coal Tit in the cedar north of the Rose Garden, which follows me around the garden taking one pine nut after another and hiding them in cracks in the bark for later eating.

There's quite a flock of Blue Tits here, probably more than anywhere else in the park.

The male Chaffinch waited in a tree.

Starlings are gathering on and around the Buck Hill shelter, where they will soon start nesting in the eaves.

There's usually a Jay behind the Albert Memorial eager for peanuts.

Jackdaws ignored the drizzle and came out all along the Serpentine Road.

The Grey Herons at the west end of the island are constantly looking into the bottom of the nest.

The nest on the right of this picture is the top one where there are certainly chicks, which I heard yesterday. The partner of the parent in the nest stood in a nest below and to the left. It seems odd that there are so many nests so close togther here, but they give plenty of standing room.

There is now almost always a heron in the nest to the west of here and slightly lower. I haven't seen a pair here. The nest can be seen quite well from across the lake, but this view doesn't reveal anything.

A Mute Swan visited the nest basket east of the Lido but left after a few minutes. So far no swans show any sign of settling here.

The boss swan and has mate were at the Vista, not troubled by the warning sign.

A pair of Egyptian Geese smartened up their feathers by one of the Serpentine boathouses.

Female Common Pochards have a quiet brown and grey colour scheme. Like other members of the genus Aythya, they don't have the speckled patterns of the larger female ducks.

The two Shoveller drakes on the Serpentine are staying together. They like to be in twos even if these aren't pairs, as then they can revolve together to feed more productively as the wake of one brings up small water creatures for the other.

A busy scene in the Dell

The corkscrew hazel bush in the Dell was a busy scene. In addition to the usual Coal Tits ...

... and Blue Tits ...

... and the envious Robin trying to stop them getting at the food on the railings ...

... there was a Magpie ...

... and several Rose-Ringed Parakeets.

A Coal Tit at Temple Gate had an attractive background of berberis.

The male Robin at Mount Gate was singing in the forsythia bush ...

... and his mate was perched in the cockspur hazel tree.

Their peace was interrupted when another Robin appeared in the back of the bushes. The male flew towards it and it left at once.

Starlings were digging in the grass at the Diana fountain, bringing up leatherjackets. These are crane fly larvae, most destructive to plants.

This Jay at the Vista was looking sweetly appealing yesterday, but today it's just straight Gimme.

Pigeon Eater and his mate, on the right of the picture, called together to repel an intruder. It worked, and the intruder left without having to be shooed.

A Grey Heron visited the top nest on the island, where the chicks could be heard clacking their beaks.

The herons in the west nest seem to spend a lot of their time standing up, which is slightly worrying as one of them ought to be sitting. But one of the herons was looking into the bottom of the nest. I can hardly believe that the eggs have hatched already, but I may have failed to notice a sitting bird earlier as it can only be seen from one place through branches. Anyway, we shall have to see.

The narrow stretch of water between the Serpentine island and the shore is usually a scene of territorial disputes between Great Crested Grebes wanting to claim a nest site on the island. This pair was cruising around making aggressive noises because there was a grebe at the other end.

The collective noun for a group of Coots is 'a raft', and you can see why when they gather in a crowd on the Long Water.

A pair of Mute Swans displayed at the Lido, with two envious onlookers.

The gravel strip in the Long Water has been partly cleared, so the dominant swan pair and other waterfowl have somewhere to sit.