There are now two singing male Reed Warblers in the reeds near the Diana Memorial. It's hard to get a picture in the quite large reed bed, and this is the best I could manage.

One of the Starlings nesting in the shelter at the bottom of Buck Hill was out collecting grubs for its nestlings.

A male Brimstone butterfly was drinking nectar in the bluebell patch on the other side of the path. Males are yellow, females are white.

I haven't been able to find the Little Owl in the oak tree near the Albert Memorial for a couple of days now, and hope the pair are all right. There was a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the tree ...

... and when I went back later there was a Nuthatch.

The male Little Owl on the chestnut tree near the leaf yard was out on a high branch ...

... but not as high as the nest hole in the lime tree across the lake, which is 40 feet up and has to be photographed from 70 feet away.

The Black Swan was with his girlfriend at the east end of the Serpentine.

Today's prize for the silliest place to build a nest goes to this Coot trying to make one in the middle of the Long Water, where there must have been a fallen branch almost reaching the surface.

A Blackbird was throwing dead leaves around at the back of the Lido, looking for insects under them.

Leaf litter is absolutely vital to Blackbirds and other thrushes. Since the park gardeners started using leaf blowers to remove it from the shrubberies, the number of Blackbirds in the park has fallen by a shocking 90 per cent.

On the Vista, a pair of Magpies were angrily chivvying a dog which has come to wallow in their private pool.

A swarm of bees was spotted by Jabir Belmehdi at 3.45 this afternoon on a plane tree near the Speke obelisk. He was about to report them to the British Beekepers' Association to have them collected when they flew off. If you spot them, this is the web page to go to.

A warm sunny day had brought a lot of birds down to the water to bathe and cool off. There was a Carrion Crow in the little pool at the top of the Dell waterfall ...

... and a Magpie in the Serpentine ...

... and a Starling.

Another Starling was emerging from a nest hole in one of the plane trees next to the small boathouses.

The nesting Starlings were constantly flying from here across the lake to collect food from the Lido restaurant. Evidently they already have nestlings.

We made a trip round the lake in a pedalo, kindly lent to us free by Peter Scott at Bluebird Boats, to shoot some video for Joanna van de Woestijne's next film. This allowed a good view of the Great Crested Grebes' nest on the island.

The Coots nesting in the fallen poplar tree near Peter Pan had ornamented their nest with a large piece of plastic sheet which also served as a sunshade.

As it says on the edge of the pound coins, Decus et tutamen (An ornament and a safeguard -- a phrase from the Aeneid adopted by Sir Isaac Newton when he was the Master of the Royal Mint, who introduced a milled edge for coins to stop people clipping bits of silver off them).

The Moorhen with an injured leg which has been resting on the edge of the Serpentine for several days seems to be recovering. It could barely hop at first, but has now progressed to walking with a limp, and can swim quite well.

Some Grey Herons were having a squabble on Buck Hill -- about a bit of food, of course.

A Blue Tit was looking pretty in the leaf yard.

The Little Owl in the chestnut tree was out on a high branch.

He was much less nervous today, and allowed four people to approach with cameras. And yes, it is the same owl, as the two are easy to tell apart.

A young rabbit near the Rudolf Steiner bench was enjoying the bluebells. It ate several.

Two pairs of Great Crested Grebes were having a territorial fight on the Long Water. It looks ferocious, but mostly it is flapping and wrestling and I have never seen a bird hurt in one of these encounters.

The grebes at the bridge have settled down comfortably after completing their third nest.

The Black Swan was next to Bluebird Boats again with his girlfriend, touting for food. A young Mute Swan came to close and was chased away.

Both of the pair of Grey Wagtails were at the bridge, perching on the posts and chains and leaping out to catch insects. I'm pretty sure that their nest is under the bridge.

The male Little Owl in the chestnut tree was on a high branch. He is a bit nervous at the moment, and flew into his hole when we approached.

The other Little Owls didn't appear, but on the oak tree near the Albert Memorial there was a Goldcrest pulling cobwebs off the bark to line its nest.

A Green Woodpecker appeared again in the plane avenue north of the memorial.

There was a Mistle Thrush in the grass nearby.

This Song Thrush was in a bush near Peter Pan.

And a Long-Tailed Tit was flitting about in the trees near the Henry Moore arch.

There was an interesting sight in Rotten Row: the Household Cavalry practising tentpegging. This is now a competitive sport, but originally it was a military manoeuvre. Just before a cavalry charge into the enemy's camp, half a dozen riders with spears would gallop in and spike out the tentpegs, so that the tents collapsed on the soldiers. Here is the approach, lining up the spear on the peg ...

... and here is a successful operation in which three pegs were removed at once.

A Tawny Owl was seen yesterday, by Jim. It was in a horse chestnut tree roughly southwest of the old nest tree and across the path. This picture is intended only as a guide. It is taken from the old owl tree. At the bottom right is the clump of brambles around the base of the beech next to the old tree. The tall tree on the right is the basswood (American lime) tree just this side of the path, and beyond that are three horse chestnuts -- I'm not sure which of the three it was in.

Needless to say, we walked all round them but couldn't find the owl.

In fact the only owl on view today was the Little Owl in the lime tree up the hill from the Henry Moore. He was dozing, but woke up enough to give me a sleepy look before he settled down again.

There was a Kestrel high over the north edge of Hyde Park. It was probably looking for Swifts, but there were just two over the lake, not worth the effort of trying to catch them, and it sloped off.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker on the east side of the Long Water was in his usual tree, but more visible than recently.

A Green Woodpecker flew into a plane tree in the avenue between the Physical Energy statue and the Albert Memorial. I think this is one of the pair that nested in this area last year and raised at least one young bird, which could be seen between here and Queen's Gate.

Also here, a Mistle Thrush was singing in an oak tree.

There was an odd sight at Peter Pan: a Feral Pigeon floating in the water. It seemed quite happy, and was fanning out its tail in the normal way of a pigeon having a bath.

It took off from the water without trouble. I've seen a Wood Pigeon fall into the lake and not be able to take off, so that it had to row ashore with its wings. But Feral Pigeons are smaller and more agile.

A Carrion Crow was calling from a blossoming cherry tree south of the Serpentine.

The Black Swan and his girlfriend were nearby, preening on the edge of the water.

A very dark male Pied Wagtail was running along the other shore of the lake.

The Great Crested Grebes' third nest at the bridge is going ahead. They had some difficulty in making it stick when they started, but eventually a few twigs must have caught on and the nest is now quite large and solid-looking, at least by grebe standards.

A pair of Blue Tits are nesting in one of the lamp posts behind the Lido swimming area, as usual.

Only some of the gas lamps are suitable for nests: the ones with a bulge in the top of the cast iron lamp standard, which gives birds just enough room. Only Blue Tits nest in these places, because the gap between the gas pipe and the hole is too narrow for a Great Tit. However, some lamp posts have access holes lower down which a Great Tit can get through, and I am keeping an eye on a lamp on the path across the top of the Dell, numbered 88, where a pair usually nest.

Under the willow tree near the bridge, a Coot is still persevering with its strangely sited nest. But the twigs keep falling off the stump, and even a Coot's persistence will fail eventually.

The female Mute Swan on the island in the Serpentine was turning her eggs. I could see four, but there may be more.

The swans' obsessive habit of destroying all the plants around their nests has led to part of the island subsiding into the water. There is enough left to support the nest, but the island will need building up when they have finished with it.

The Black Swan and his girlfriend were in the same place as yesterday, beside the Bluebird Boats building.

They are next to the place where food for the waterfowl is sold, and are also in view of the queue to buy ice cream, so it's an excellent place to tout for food.

A Gadwall was feeding on the edge of the Serpentine.

The sunlight showed off the fine purple iridescence on the head of a Tufted Duck at Peter Pan.

Two Mandarin drakes were resting on the edge of the pool in front of the Rima relief. Possibly they have mates nesting in nearby trees.

It would be interesting to see if ducklings are brought down to this pond. It is very small but it is also overgrown with nutritious duckweed, and would keep a family going for some time.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker was pecking at the park of an oak tree next to the leaf yard. Its eyes are half closed, and you can see the extra-strong eyelids that keep its eyes from popping out when it is pecking. Woodpeckers also have a shock absorber inside their skull to avoid brain damage.

A female Blackcap was flying around a hawthorn tree near Peter Pan.

The Little Owl in the lime tree near the Henry Moore sculpture was the only one I saw today.

The one in the oak tree was out at times, but I missed him despite three visits.

These medium-sized mushrooms were growing between the bridge and Rima. I thought they were St George's mushrooms (Calocybe gambosa), but checking on the web shows that the gills are wrong for this species -- they are subdecurrent, running a short way down the stem, rather than adnate, meeting it at right angles, as in a St George's mushroom.