The male pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was stalking around his usual place on the edge of the Serpentine next to the Dell restaurant, where people feeding the geese and swans drop food and Feral Pigeons flock to pick it up. The gull made a sudden rush, on foot, into a crowd of pigeons, seized one by the neck, and flew with it into the lake to drown it.

The pigeon struggled desperately, and almost got away.

But in the end it was overwhelmed and drowned, and the pair closed in to devour it.

So far when I have seen this pair in action it is always the male who does the hunting. He is a very big bird, much larger than his mate. As you can see from the first picture, she just looked on like Lady Macbeth.

The Mandarins on the Serpentine were also very active. The two in the foreground are a pair, and the other male had got too close to the female for her mate's liking. So he pushed past her ...

... and chased the other one away.

This happened several times, and eventually the interloper learned to keep his distance.

The young Grey Wagtail was in his current favourite place between the Lido restaurant and the Lido swimming area. Here it opens its wings to fly upon to the railings.

There were two Moorhens in one of the small boathouses searching for insects in the deserted Coots' nest. These nests remain full of parasites even when abandoned, as we saw recently with the one at Peter Pan which was completely demolished by birds trying to get the bugs out.

In contrast to all this activity, the Great Crested Grebes were lazing about. This is one of the young ones on the Long Water offshore from Peter Pan.

I didn't see an owl today, but the male Tawny Owl and female Little Owl both emerged after I had gone home.

There was heavy rain all morning and into the early afternoon. Even the Moorhens were taking shelter.

It didn't deter the Shovellers on the Long Water. These are again immature males, but a brightly coloured adult drake could be seen in the distance and I will photograph him when he comes nearer.

A Red Crested Pochard drake lent a touch of colour to a drab day. He is now in full breeding plumage.

A pair of Mandarins at the Vista were very fond of each other, with the male gently nuzzling the female's neck.

The female Little Owl was sitting out in the rain, on the top of the pair's nest tree. She allowed me one quick picture before she dashed into the tree.

On the Serpentine, the pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was sizing up some candidates for lunch. This is the male of the pair, an enormous bird whose particularly bright yellow legs show that he is in good condition on his nutritious diet. He is now in winter plumage, with black streaks on his head.

One of the Great Crested Grebe chicks was surprised by its parent surfacing right next to it.

You can tell when it's a chilly day by looking at the Robins. When they are cold they fluff themselves up until they are practically spherical.

The male Tufted Ducks are coming out of their dull grey eclipse and regrowing their smart white sides, which make them look rather like warships of the Napoleonic era.

While I was photographing them at the Vista, two Mallard drakes chased each other through the group.

The Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Long Water are now as large as their parents, but still relentlessly pursuing them, clamouring for food.

The familiar Carrion Crow family in Kensington Gardens chase me demanding food, sometimes for several hundred yards. They have got very spoilt by constant attention, but these charming birds are hard to resist. Here Melissa deals with a peanut on one of the posts at Peter Pan.

The male Little Owl was sunning himself on his nest tree.

No Tawny Owl appeared, although I visited their tree several times. But there was something happening there. A Starling was poking its head out of a hole in the trunk, staring fixedly upwards.

It was looking at a Ring-Necked Parakeet on a branch a couple of feet away.

This hole was a Starlings' nest hole for several years, but last year the Parakeets pushed them out and nested there themselves. Parakeets seem to maintain the claim on their nest holes even when they aren't using them, and I have often seen them going into the holes outside the nesting season. This Starling evidently felt the same and wanted its property back. After several minutes the Parakeet gave up and left. But it is bigger than the Starling and will probably win in the end.

The Mandarins are out in their new plumage, with the drake looking unbelievably gaudy ...

... and the female in a chic grey outfit.

The Red Crested Pochards are also back in their breeding plumage, the drake with his lofty ginger wig.

They make this change very early, since they will not be breeding until next spring. In contrast, the Great Crested Grebes are going into their plain non-breeding plumage for winter.

On a normal lake the grebes would also be breeding next spring, but the restricted availablility of small fish here means that they don't start until late summer.

There is no shortage of fish of all sizes at the moment. This Grey Heron has just caught a roach under the parapet of the Italian Garden, which is one of the best fishing spots on the lake.

More Shovellers have arrived, all of them on the Long Water. I think these two are immature males, but am not sure as they might be adult drakes just coming out of eclipse. There are no drakes in full breeding plumage on the lake at the moment.

There were Pied Wagtails sprinting all over the Parade Ground, which was almost deserted by humans on this rainy day.

The male Tawny Owl was not out when I went past the nest tree for the first time. Later the rain stopped and I went past again. There was a tremendous noise of Jays and Magpies, so that it was clear that he was visible to them inside the nest hole. Then they gave up and flew away, and a minute later the owl popped up and looked mildly at me as if nothing had happened.

The Little Owls, on the other hand, were nowhere to be seen.

A Goldcrest was hopping around in the yew tree near the southwest corner of the leaf yard, and briefly came into sight. They are not at all frightened of people, but prefer to stay inside evergreen trees because of other predators.

There was also a Blue Tit walking nonchalantly along the underside of a branch.

The Moorhen chicks from the family that bred very late in the land drain near the bridge are growing up fast. The pair nest every year in the drain, taking a chance on there not being heavy rain that will fill the drain and wash them out. Usually they get away with it.

A Black-Headed Gull was poised on one leg on the old cast-iron water level indicator in the Serpentine, apparently not moving a muscle although there was a bit of a wind. How do birds manage to do this? They can even sleep standing on one leg.

The father of two of the Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Long Water was up near the Italian Garden, hauling up fair-sized perch one after the other. These vanished instantly into the chicks.

People throw down an amazing variety of food for the birds. These Feral Pigeons are eating chopped cauliflower stems, which will be better for them than Cheezy Wotsits.

The male Little Owl was enjoying the warm sunshine on the top of the nest tree.

I had to leave the park before the Tawny Owl came out, but was told that he was in his usual place in the horse chestnut around 4 pm.

The Coots' nest at Peter Pan, long guarded by its jealous builders, has gone in a single day. Having been there for months, it was swarming with insects, and the Mallards and Moorhens decided to pick it to pieces to extract these, taking no notice of the angry Coots' efforts to stop them. This picture was taken yesterday.

And here is the nest today, stripped down below the waterline.

One of the Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Long Water extended a pair of fully grown wings.

It had a few practice runs, but it will be a while before it actually gets out of the water. Grebes have a very high unstick speed, and have to race frantically across the water for 50 yards, propelled mainly by their feet, before they can get airborne. Years ago I saw a Short Sunderland flying boat taking off. It was a very similar spectacle.

Another grebe chick was much more in its element fishing around the wire baskets near the bridge. But it is still not catching much, if anything, and remains dependent on its parents for food.

Here, seen across the Long Water at the Vista, are three kinds of duck, all male: a Tufted Duck, a Pochard and a Shoveller.

A female Ring-Necked Parakeet was eating berries in a yew tree in the Flower Walk, picking them with a foot rather that biting them off.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual place in the pair's nest tree, awake because he had just been preening.

The female Little Owl had been doing the same in the chestnut tree next to their nest tree.

The Little Owls were in separate trees, the male on his usual perch in the nest tree ...

... and the female in the tree next to it.

I don't think they had had a disagreement, they just felt like some time on their own. The female owl is larger than the male, but the difference is not as great as appears in these pictures. He is sitting with his feathers flat, and she has fluffed herself up after a preening session. The two are exactly the same colour, and the difference seem her is simply caused by the way the light was falling on them.

The male Tawny Owl was also in his favourite place on the couple's nest tree.

He didn't come out until after 3 pm. At the moment he seems to be visible in the early morning and the late afternoon, but much less so in the middle of the day.

When Canada geese are flying, they breathe every four wingbeats, and open their beaks as they do so.

They have perfectly good nostrils to breathe through, and I guess that this is something to do with dissipating the heat that these large birds create in vigorous action.

A Black-Headed Gull was investigating some salad dumped on the edge of the Serpentine, perhaps attracted by the bright colours.

It didn't eat any. Nor did a Canada Goose which had also come over to investigate.

Two of the four Great Crested Grebe chicks on the Long Water were practising their fishing skills. Effective fishing takes quite a long time to learn, and they were not catching anything, to the disappointment of the Black-Headed Gull that was shadowing them, hoping to grab their catch.

A Blackbird was eating yew berries in the Flower Walk.