The Great Crested Grebes' nest under the willow, which recently was raided by an unknown predator which took all the eggs, is now back in full swing and the pair were mating. Let's hope they succeed this time.

The pair of grebes at the east end of the Serpentine were fishing under the balcony of the Dell restaurant, catching plenty of small fish in the shallow water.

A pair of Mute Swans engaged in a courtship ritual, mirroring each other's movements. They do this at almost any time of year, not just in the breeding season.

The two Bar-Headed x Greylag hybrids saw me and came over for some sunflower seeds.

The pale Greylag stared at the camera, but it wasn't interested in being fed. It only comes to the park to moult, and now that it can fly again it will soon be off to wherever it spends the rest of its time.

The three Mallard ducklings on the Serpentine survived another day. They stay close to their mother, which helps to protect them. Also, they are at the west end of the Serpentine, where there are fewer Herring Gulls.

The young Grey Heron in the Dell took off with one flap of its mighty wings.

The Little Owl in the oak tree was in an awkward place and could only be photographed from a considerable distance.

A Stock Dove in the same tree was plainly visible.

Two Carrion Crows probed a tree trunk, looking for insects in the bark.

A Blackbird ate a blackberry.

The Reed Warbler family could be heard in the reed bed near the Diana fountain, and Ahmet Amerikali got a picture of one of the adults.

He also photographed a female Chaffinch near the bridge.

One of Tom's friends, Dilshan Muthalib, kindly sent me his picture of the Great White Egret which has spent eleven days on Pen Ponds in Richmond Park.

Tom was at Rye Harbour nature reserve, where he got a picture of a Painted Lady butterfly. There have been a lot of these in the past few days, but not in the park.

There are definitely three pair of Great Crested Grebes on the lake. This is the third nest, inconspicuously sited on the east side of the Long Water halfway between the two previous nests. You can see one of the chicks, of which I think there are two.

Both the chicks from the nest on the fallen poplar are alive and well.

Ahmet Amerikali got a dramatic picture of one of them being fed.

He was lucky to catch them coming to the west side of the lake where you can stand, since they spend almost all their time on the distant east side.

The pair under the willow tree near the bridge have recovered from the shock of their nest being raided, and are returning to it.

The two Moorhen chicks in the Italian Garden fountain climbed around on the water lilies.

One of the chicks at Bluebird Boats got a bit of a waffle from the snack bar.

The young Heron in the Dell has taken to standing on the rock where the Moorhens like to nest. This may explain why the Moorhens here haven't bred this year, the first time they have failed for several years.

The Tufted Duck family passed quickly across the waterfront at Peter Pan. I think they have lost one of their original seven ducklings, but these keep diving and it's hard to count them.

The two Mallard families on the Long Water, one with five ducklings, the other with two, collided in the shallow water when someone started throwing bread. Black-Headed Gulls also got involved, and a Moorhen quietly sneaked off with a bit of bread.

Another Mallard family worked its way down the edge of the Serpentine, eating algae.

The young Starlings are beginning to get their spotted adult feathers.

A Jackdaw skilfully pecked open a peanut shell and extracted the nuts.

The male Little Owl was in his usual oak tree in the morning, but impossible to photograph. Luckily he moved in the afternoon.

A Speckled Wood butterfly perched on a leaf in the Dell.

Three more of excellent pictures by Ahmet. A Cormorant on the Serpentine caught a very large perch, which it just managed to swallow.

The Little Grebes at Southwark Park have hatched a second chick. There is still one egg to hatch.

One of the chicks amid the duckweed.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes on far side of the Long Water could just be seen to have two new chicks. I hope to get a better picture tomorrow.

This is puzzling. I thought there were two pairs of grebes on the Long Water, one of which had chicks some time ago, of which at least one survives and is now quite large, and the other nesting under the willow treee by the bridge, whose nest no longer had eggs in it yesterday. It's tempting to assume that the pair in this picture are the ones I photographed yesterday under the willow looking at the empty nest. But there is no sign of chicks in that picture, or in any other pictures I took then.

Ignoring the protest of a teenage Coot ...

... a Greylag Goose picked insects out of the nest at the Dell restaurant. After it had gone away, one of the adults crossly repaired the damage.

The Coots which have been trying to nest at the Serpentine outflow seem to have given up at last, after five attempts. A Moorhen has taken over the abandoned nest. It is not as good at arranging bits of plastic bag as the Coots were.

An old plastic bag encrusted with algae provided a meal for the Coot chicks on the Long Water.

Two Mandarins appeared at the Vista, not the pair I saw recently as both of them are female.

The comings and goings of Mandarins are mysterious because (like the equally mysterious Red-Crested Pochards) their main population is outside the park and they visit the Long Water at random.

The Pochard rested with her ducklings, now large teenagers, on a fallen branch on the far side of the Long Water.

The usual five teenage Mallards cruised briskly across by Peter Pan, followed by their mother.

There was a Mallard with three ducklings on the Serpentine near the bridge. New broods keep appearing here, but predation by Herring Gulls is severe.

A Grey Heron stood on one of the floating baskets at the island.

The original water plants in these died many years ago. There is now some purple loosestrife, which grows well in wet conditions, and some willowherb (both Rose Bay and Great) which is not doing nearly as well and is yellow and sickly looking. It would be good to find some hardy plants that will resist being torn up by Coots to improve the appareance of these tatty wire baskets. I've neen talking with Hugh, the Wildlife Officer, about this.

A view of the Little Owl near the Albert Memorial on one of his favourite branches.

A Blue Tit demolished the web spun by some larva to protect itself while it pupated.

There was a Mistle Thrush in the rowan trees on Buck Hill, the first I've seen there this year. The berries have appeared very early this year. I don't think the bird is a migrant -- we have a few year-round resident Mistle Thrushes.

The grass on Buck Hill is partly mown short and partly left to grow long. Grasshoppers abound in the long grass, but it's hard for birds to move around in it, so they patrol the edge looking in to see what they can grab. Not only Magpies but Carrion Crows, Mistle Thrushes and Kestrels all behave in this way.

Carp are particularly fond of peanuts. The normally placid fish in the Italian Garden fountains become quite animated when some are thrown into the water.

Casting practice on Buck Hill: trying to drop the line on to the yellow target at the left.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee worked its way over a teasel at the esst end of the Lido. There are quite a lot of teasels here now, and later in the year the seed heads should attract Goldfinches.

A Tufted Duck with seven ducklings appeared unexpectedly at Peter Pan.

She got too close to the Coot whose nest is in the background, and was chased off. The ducklings instinctively dived and emerged unharmed.

The single Tufted duckling on the Serpentine has survived another day.

There is a new brood of three Mallard ducklings on the Serpentine.

But it was bad news for the Great Crested Grebes under the willow near the bridge, who have lost all their eggs in some unexplained disaster. There is no sign of broken eggs in the nest. Perhaps an agile fox climbed along a branch and took them.

However, the nest at the east end of the island is still going strong, and here is a close-up view. This video was shot from a boat, thanks to Mateusz at Bluebird Boats who took me out to the island. We got a bit too close and the grebe left the nest, but she soon decided we were harmless and came back and settled down.

Incidentally, this is the grebe that Mateusz rescued when she got trapped in the basket a few months ago.

One of the teenage grebes on the Serpentine preened its shining white underside.

A Moorhen made itself comfortable in a patch of weeds beside one of the small boathouses.

A Magpie washed in a puddle.

The young Blackbirds have stopped begging for food from their parents and are now looking for food by themselves. This one was on the lawn to the east of the Dell.

A sibling was in a yew tree on the corner of the Dell.

Three Greenfinches hopped around in a holly tree between Peter Pan and the Italian Garden. The one in the middle is young, so they have bred here.

The familiar Coal Tit at the bridge nibbled delicately at a pine nut I gave her. Their preferred habitat is pine trees, and the seeds are one of their favourite foods.

The perfect wildflower to attract a Honeybee: mauve and probably brightly ultraviolet, with guide lines so that the bee can make a perfect touchdown in the centre.

Mark Williams got a good picture of a Reed Warbler on the netting surrounding a reed bed ...

... and, in St James's Park, a Banded Demoiselle.