A close view of one of the pair of Dunnocks in the shrubbery at the southwest corner of the bridge. They are shy birds, but I was standing still and it forgot I was there, and hopped around under my feet.

A few yards away, a Blue Tit pecked furiously at a dead, curled-up horse chestnut leaf, making quite a noise. Perhaps there was the larva of a leaf miner moth in it. I couldn't get an unobstructed view through the leaves, and this picture is the best I could manage.

The female Blackbird with the white face hasn't appeared for a while, but this is her mate in a whitebeam tree near the Italian Garden. He is still looking tatty after breeding and moulting, but his head feathers should grow back soon.

A Wren looked out from the dead leaves of a tree beside the Long Water ...

... and another pulled at a spider's web at the top of the Dell.

Grey Wagtails love running water, and are often seen on the little waterfall in the Dell.

The young Great Crested Grebes from the island were beside the platform of Bluebird Boats, fishing but not catching much, and being fed occasionally by their parents.

A Cormorant was preening on the fallen horse chestnut tree in the Long Water, looking surprisingly shiny in the low autumn sunshine.

A pair of Mute Swans courted at the Vista.

There were several families of Mute Swans with teenage cygnets on the Long Water. This one prudently left before the dominant swan chased them away.

Two of the dominant pair's cygnets rested on the gravel bank, overlooked by a Grey Heron.

Long before the memorial fountain to Princess Diana was built, there was a fountain with a bronze statue of the goddess Diana in the Rose Garden. It's a popular bathing place for Feral Pigeons.

On the pavement a few feet away, a Common Wasp stood over the body of an insect it had caught and was eating.

Above it, a Common Carder bumblebee peacefully collected pollen from a flower.

Chaffinches are getting rare in the park, badly hit by a virus disease. So it was a surprise to see four today. This male was near a feeder in the Rose Garden, waiting for a chance to dodge through the mob of Rose-Ringed Parakeets.

A female was deep in the bushes at the southwest corner of the leaf yard, a place too dark for a picture. And there was a pair in shrubbery at the southwest corner of the bridge, also unphotographable.

There was just enough light here to get a picture of one of the Dunnocks, perfectly camouflaged in leaf litter (which will no doubt soon be blasted away by a leaf blower, destroying the habitat of many small birds).

One of the Coal Tits came out of the bushes to be fed.

A parakeet ate yew berries in a tree near the Henry Moore sculpture. They don't really eat them, they just chew them a bit to extract the juice and then spit them out. The stones are poisonous, but are hard enough to pass through a bird's digestive tract unaltered, and thrushes eat the whole berry with impunity. Also, parakeets eat yew leaves, which are just as poisonous.

A Carrion Crow was disarranged by a change in the wind.

It also caught one of the young Grey Herons as it stood on the boathouse roof.

The other young heron was on the dead willow near the Italian Garden, hardly visible against the branches, waiting for a fish to forget it was there.

Herons have a large personal space, and when they get too close to each other the result is always a squabble and a chase.

The Coots that nested at the Serpentine outflow have reclaimed their territory from the Moorhen squatting there.

At the west end of the island, a popular hangout for Cormorants, one had a wash and then jumped awkwardly on to a post to dry.

A young Herring Gull won the race to grab part of an ice cream cone, still with some ice cream in it.

We haven't yet reached the stage seen in some resorts where Herring Gulls grab cones out of people's hands. This picture was taken in Cornwall, and there are plenty from other coastal towns on the web.

On Tuesday I showed a picture of an aged or infirm Canada Goose drinking from the Serpentine near the island. It's always in the same place, usually standing in an odd nose-down attitude. So far it seems to have managed to avoid being attacked by the dogs that irresponsible owners allow to run free and attack birds.

This squirrel wasn't so lucky. After the dog killed it, the woman who owned the dog was congratulated by other owners. Truly these people live in a weird private world where everything their pet does is funny and lovely.

A strange survival from the past, seen on the South Carriage Drive. It must be extraordinarily difficult getting spare parts for a De Lorean.

The notorious pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull had killed two pigeons, and was on the roof of the restaurant resting after an enormous meal, leaving his offspring to eat the leftovers. The young gull was trying to keep both pigeons, but an adult Lesser Black-Back kept trying to feed on the unattended one, and had to be repeatedly chased away. The young gull clearly takes after its dominant father and can already see off an adult.

A young Herring Gull played with a stick beside the Serpentine.

The pair of Mute Swans on the island, which used to sit in front of the gate with their cygnets, have been driven off by another pair. At least the newcomers were not blocking the gate, and Mallards and a Canada Goose could walk in and out freely. However, a Cormorant got warned not to come any closer.

One of the Bar-Headed Geese from St James's Park paid a visit. It was grazing at the east end of the Serpentine.

Jon Ferguson has been keeping an eye on the Mallard family on the Round Pond, and sent this picture of them nearly grown up. The mother has done a remarkable job in keeping them all alive except one.

This is an indifferent picture, but I include it because it's unsual to see the whole Great Crested Grebe family from the east end of the island togther. Usually they are ranging widely all over the Serpentine.

This young Moorhen in the Dell is probably looking for insects, but Moorhens can't resist climbing on any clump of plants just because it's there.

One of the young Grey Herons was doing its best to look like a branch in the dead willow next to the Italian Garden.

An oak beside the Serpentine was full of chattering Starlings. A closer look showed that they were digging insects out of the leaves.

A Robin in the Dell called to a rival, telling it not to come too close.

This rat is often to be seen climbing the Harlequin Glorybower tree in the Rose Garden. I thought it was trying to get to the bird feeder that used to hang there, but some evil person has stolen the feeder yet again, and the rat still climbs the tree.

A few feet away, a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was frantically foraging. The single yellow roses, closer to the wild flower than more complicated cultivars, provide plenty of nourishment.

A lot of the trees on Buck Hill are sadly affected by Honey Fungus, which causes the bark to peel off and the wood to be affected by white rot.

Sadly, this includes the rowan trees where thrushes feed on the berries. One of the four has been killed already, and a a second one is dying.

The Canada Geese with fifteen goslings haven't been very noticeable now that the young ones are all fully grown. But today they saw Jenna feeding the birds (with proper healthy food, I should point out) and charged over to mob her.

The Greylag that they accidentally adopted is still with them, and can be seen at the right of the picture. Here it is in a closer view. You can see that it is still young because there is no white line down its side under its folded wings, and its legs are still brownish orange.

There was also a solitary Canada about which we couldn't decide whether it was ill or just old. It can only walk slowly. It went to the edge of the lake and lay down to drink.

The young Mute Swan in the Italian Garden pond flapped its wings, managing to extend them fully. Its injured right wing is still a bit stiff, but better than it was yesterday.

The pair of Moorhens that nested unsuccessfully in the hawthorn tree on the Dell restaurant terrace now spend much of their time on top of the weir at the Serpentine outflow.

A Great Crested Grebe preened. They will be moulting now, and unable to fly for a while.

Three Cormorants fished cooperatively over the submerged wire baskets at the bridge, which are filled with twigs and act as a fish hatchery. But it looks as if the birds have fished out this area already. I watched for some time and they didn't catch anything here.

There were Cormorants all over the western end of the island.

The first Common Gull I've seen this autumn was on the rail of the Lido jetty, second from left in this picture. They return much later than the Black-Headed Gulls, and leave earlier.

Jon Ferguson found a Lesser Black-Backed Gull eating a Feral Pigeon which it had apparently killed at the Round Pond. But this isn't the usual pigeon killer ...

... whose picture taken today is below, and shows much less dark streaking on the head.

For some reason no birds, not even the omnivorous Feral Pigeons, seem to like strawberries.

They are usually not keen on salad either, but this Starling at the Lido restaurant ate a leaf. It was fancy feuille de chêne lettuce, and tastier than the ordinary stuff.

Most of the tables on the terrace were unoccupied on a windy day, but there were Starlings all over it, chattering loudly.

One of the two young Grey Herons perched on the edge of the Dell waterfall as branches thrashed in the background.

A depressingly large proportion of the dog owners in the park let their dogs chase the wildfowl, which is not just against the park regulations but against the law. At least this dog was so small and feeble that the dominant Mute Swan on the Long Water could deal with it. I was tempted to upload the full clip which showed the owner's silly face.

One of the young Grey Herons stood among the stone ornaments of the Italian Garden. When they stand still, people often think they're garden ornaments themselves.

The other young heron was on the other side of the balustrade, on a dead branch. It had a slight confrontation with a Cormorant.

The Cormorant went off, dived, and brought up something which at first sight seemed to be a fish. But it wasn't, and the bird spat it out. I think it was a leather wallet, possibly thrown into the lake by a pickpocket after he had removed the contents.

The young Mute Swan in the fountain pool in the Italian Garden seems quite content, eating algae from the bottom. However, when it stretches its wings, it looks as if the right one is stiff, and it may have injured itself landing in the confined space. The wing folds up normally and is not broken, so it should recover without intervention.

A Great Crested Grebe chick chased its father near the island. The splashing is part of begging, to attract its parent's attention, though you can also hear its loud piping calls from hundreds of yards away.

This young Grey Wagtail ranges all over the lake looking for food, and earlier flew past me in Kensington Gardens, a good mile from the Dell where this video was shot, and also the place where it was hatched. Its home turf is a good place for catching insects as they fly low over the stream.

There was also a Pied Wagtail on the edge of the Serpentine.

Starlings preened on the railings of the Lido restaurant terrace while waiting for someone to leave a table.

A Carrion Crow got bored of waiting.

A Blackbird bathed in a shallow pool in front of the Rima relief. Probably the three small pools here were designed as places for birds to drink and bathe, since the site is a monument to the naturalist W.H. Hudson.

The two Nuthatches in the leaf yard came down to take food from the railings.

A Jay looked down from a maple tree, waiting for me to stop photographing it and give it a peanut.

One of the pair of Coal Tits at the bridge came to Marie's hand to feed.

A Great Tit waited for its turn in the holly tree.

A Dunnock poked around in the shadow of the bushes.