It was a hot day. A Carrion Crow was cooling off by bathing in the Serpentine.

A Moorhen was basking on the shore.

The Mute Swans were in an irritable mood. A young swan, identifiable by her greyish bill, attacked a senior swan for no visible reason.

The Black Swan cruised into the territory of the dominant Mute Swan at the east end of the Serpentine, and was chased off.

There was a swan in the reed bed beside the Long Water again. At first I thought it was the intruder who has tried to nest there, but in fact I think it's the dominant male swan who had taken over the nest and was using it as a day bed while his mate and the cygnets touted for food at Peter Pan.

A female Mallard with two ducklings has been using this Coot nest beside Peter Pan for several days now.

The Coot didn't like it, and there was a face-off ...

... which ended in the Mallard leaping off the nest and attacking the Coot, which fled.

The Great Crested Grebe chicks from the island had been set down in the water by their father. They can all just fit on to his back still, but it's a tight squeeze and they keep falling off.

A Goldcrest was singing in a yew tree near the bridge.

Most of the songbirds have fallen silent now, but there was a good song from a Blackcap near Peter Pan, too far inside a bush for a photograph.

The female Little Owl was on her favourite branch. Tom discovered that you can get a better view of this awkward place by going inside the tree and looking straight up. The owl looked annoyed, but is used to photographers now and tolerated us.

Male Black-Tailed Skimmer dragonflies usually perch on the gravel-covered tarmac of the paths, which makes for an unclear picture, so it was good to see one on the natural background of a stem.

A Tree Bumblebee was gathering nectar from a thistle at the leaf yard.

The same thistle also had a small banded hoverfly on it. Looking it up, I found that it's a Marmalade Fly, a pleasing name.

The Great Crested Grebe chicks at the island were dumped off their father's back so that he could do a bit of preening.

Five minutes later they had all climbed back on.

The other pair of grebes who had tried to nest on the island were hanging around by some moored pedalos, unable to get nearer.

They gave up here, and went to the west end of the Serpentine to try and get under the bridge on to the Long Water. But just the other side of the bridge, one of the resident pair was waiting under a willow tree to repel them. When they tried to sneak past, there was another nasty surprise for them as they were attacked by a Coot.

The other pair of grebes on the Long Water are still waiting for their second clutch of eggs to hatch. Here one of them has just got on to the nest to relieve its mate, and is turning the eggs over. The much larger and stronger nest of a Coot is in the background.

Every year a pair of Coots build a nest at the top of the weir where the water flows out of the Serpentine. And every year the chicks get washed over the weir and are lost, because they can't climb back up. But, with the insane obstinacy of Coots, they keep trying.

Another example of persistence is the Coot nest in the middle of the Long Water, which has been occupied for months with no visible result. It seems that any chicks that hatch are instantly seized by gulls, or possibly that the gulls don't even wait for chicks, and seize the eggs.

The Moorhens in the Italian Garden have also lost all their chicks, and are building a new nest in one of the clumps of water plants.

One duckboard in one of the ponds is where the Feral Pigeons go to bathe. There's only room on the board for one to bathe at once, so they have to queue and wait their turn.

The Black Swan was cruising around near the Dell restaurant.

Near the landing stage at the Diana fountain, this year's solitary young Grey Heron was waiting for a fish. It was standing right next to an adult, but there was none of the usual conflict that occurs when herons get too close to each other. Maybe it was tolerated because it was juvenile, or because the adult is one of its parents.

The female Little Owl at the leaf yard was on her favourite branch.

A female Emperor dragonfly was laying eggs on a floating reed stem under the parapet of the Italian Garden.

These may be the rarest birds in London. The allotment in Kensington Gardens has a few large and stately chickens of various breeds.

The Great Crested Grebe family on the Serpentine were taking a tour of the island. All three chicks could be seen on their parent's back.

Earlier they had had a territorial dispute with the pair from the east end of the lake. In this sequence the island is to the right and the challengers are coming in from the left. The incoming pair display to each other, but one of the island pair goes out and drives them back. Neither pair got close to each other, and the whole dispute was carried out by gestures and calls.

The three grebe chicks on the Long Water were busily rummaging in some algae just below the surface. It must be full of small water creatures, perhaps insect larvae.

The Coots nesting near the bridge were feeding their three chicks, with the father bringing food and passing it to the mother to distribute.

A Cormorant jumped on to one of the wooden posts at Peter Pan. It is a desperate scramble, since the bird has to jump two feet straight up and struggle for a foothold with its not very grippy webbed feet. This time it was successful, but they often fall off.

The Black Swan was under the bridge, gazing on to the Long Water. The surroundings are more agreeable on that side, but he will be remembering his hard fight with the resident male swan last year, which he lost and left the park soon afterwards, not returning for months.

The Greylag Goose with the white head was appealing to a visitor for a share of his sandwich, giving a good view of its remarkable blue eye.

There were three returning Black-Headed Gulls on the posts at the Serpentine island. This one is a year old, with the dark brown head of its breeding plumage but still some tweedy juvenile feathers on its wings.

An adult Magpie, in the centre of this picture, was being noisily pestered by two youngsters. It looks exasperated. But the young ones will be feeding themselves soon.

A young Wren was begging loudly at the back of the Lido.

The female Little Owl at the leaf yard was sitting impassively in her tree, taking no notice of the people staring at her from the ground.

When Grey Herons fight ...

... they go straight up in the air.

Another heron landed on the Little Owls' chestnut tree ...

... alarming the female owl, who retreated to a well hidden place on the other side of the tree.

The Coots nesting on the basket at the bridge have three chicks, and were off the nest. Probably the fourth egg was a dud and has been rolled out of the nest.

Some carp browsing peacefully at Peter Pan were disturbed when a Coot swan over them.

The Moorhens at the east end of the Serpentine seem to have lost their latest brood, although at least one of the previous brood is still alive, and now independent. They were going for a third one in their indefatigable way.

The Black Swan's fine ruffles need careful maintenance.

We haven't has a picture of the Mute Swan family on the Long Water for a while. The cygnets are growing up fast.

A Wood Pigeon was drinking at the edge of the Serpentine.

Several young Great Tits were fluttering their wings and calling for food at the bridge.

Emperor dragonflies were hunting in their usual spot under the parapet of the Italian Garden. They are extremely difficult to photograph in the air, and this is the best I could manage today.

There were also some Common Blue damselflies. Here is one chasing a midge low over the water.

Something strange was going on at Peter Pan. Gongs were involved. Whatever it was, it was clearly deeply mystical.

This is one of the stucco roses on the underside of the cornice of the Kuwaiti Embassy in Knightsbridge. The petals provide excellent support for House Martins' nests, but it's hard to see what's going on behind them. It looks as if there are two nests on this one.

The Coots nesting in a dangerously exposed place near the bridge lost their first brood, but now they have hatched another three chicks. There was still one egg not so far hatched. The mother was having a hard time getting all the chicks arranged in a comfortable position.

Fran managed to get a picture of the Great Crested Grebe family on the Serpentine with all three chicks visible.

The family on the Long Water also have three.

And the young grebe prematurely thrown out by the Serpentine pair brings the total to seven. It was investigating a net around a reed bed for insects, which grebes happily eat as a change from aquatic creatures.

The Coots nesting in the boathouse have decorated their nest with a plastic bag.

A cygnet was flapping its tiny wings. Mute Swans don't develop their wings until they are more or less full size. This actually increases their chances of survival, as swans are not manoeuvrable in the air and are liable to crash into obstacles and injure or kill themselves.

There are a few Canada Geese with white-speckled heads among the hundreds that have come to moult on the Serpentine, and this is the most specked one. It is a pure-bred Canada, I think, not a hybrid.

There was a large mixed group of Common and Red-Crested Pochards on the gravel bank in the Long Water. This is only about a third of them, plus one Mallard and one Tufted Duck.

The Mandarin family with two young was on the near side of the lake. The mother shooed some Feral Pigeons away from her offspring.

One of the two very dark Mallard drakes was here as well. He is in full eclipse and just regrowing his wings, but doesn't look much different from usual -- unlike the normal Mallard drakes, which are looking very drab and brown.

The Blue Tits, which were also moulting and looking quite tatty, and recovering and regrowing their smart blue head feathers.

The female Little Owl at the leaf yard looked round from her perch.

The Little Owls nesting at the top of Buck Hill above the Henry Moore sculpture have two owlets, which can be heard begging for food. But they remain invisible. I've spent some time trying to spot one. They are in three large horse chestnut trees between the entrance to the allotment and the entrance to the park offices.

Four rabbits were visible under the sculpture, and two of them were young. So the population really is recovering, much later than usual this year.

Just along the path, a Red Admiral butterfly perched on a nettle.