A serious Coot fight

Two Coots had been chasing each other for several minutes before settling down to a severe fight. This clip shows the second half. One of them was clearly winning, and the loser was trying to hold it off -- in vain, as the winner gripped it and tried to drown it. However, the loser managed to break free, and had a preen and a flap to settle its nerves after a narrow escape.

The youngest Great Crested Grebe, now fishing for itself and only begging occasionally from its parents, is spending most of its time at the Serpentine outflow. Maybe this is a good fishing spot, or maybe it likes listening to the cellist who is busking on the bridge with a well judged selection of romantic favourites, just the thing to appeal to the passing crowds.

Also staying at this end of the lake is the young Mute Swan that flew in from Regent's Park. There is a small group of swans here keeping away from the killer swan who attacks everything farther up the lake. People were worried that the adults here were bullying the young swan, but today all seemed reasonably peaceful.

There are now over 60 swans on the Round Pond, far too many, most of which have fled the main lake to get away from the killer.

A Cormorant dried its wings on a post under the bridge, giving a top view looking down from the parapet.

A young Herring Gull chased an adult for no apparent reason. Young gulls are bumptious and have little respect for their elders.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull called a warning to other gulls to stay out of his patch. Then he flew up and drove these two away.

Three Common Gulls perched in a row on the posts at Peter Pan.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was not tempted out of her hole by the weak winter sunshine.

A pair of Magpies are always waiting for peanuts beside the path from the bridge to the Vista ...

... and a pair of Carrion Crows perch at the top of the next tree planning to swoop down and get the nuts before the Magpies can reach them.

A crow waited under the odd ornamental fatsia in a pot at the Lido restaurant.

The Pied Wagtails were skittering through the dead leaves washed up at the edge.

London is full of Redwings, but few come to the park until after the Winter Wasteland has been dismantled. This one was near the leaf yard.

A Great Tit perched among the last few leaves on a lime tree.

More clips of the Robins which are singing all over the Rose Garden. I've never known there to be so many here.

Dim and drizzly

It was a dark damp day, but the Robins in the Rose Garden were undeterred. One was poking around in a flower bed and flew up on to a bench ...

... and another sang in a rose bush.

The male Blackbird in the Dell has had a family this year, but now they have dispersed and I haven't even seen his mate recently.

A different male Chaffinch from the one often seen in the Flower Walk, in the bushes on the east side of the Albert Memorial.

The usual pair of Pied Wagtails were working their way round the edge of the Serpentine, and again I managed to get a picture of the male finding a tiny larva.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond sheltered from the drizzle.

The Peregrines were on the barracks.

They stayed there at least until 2.20 pm, when I left the park and hurried down to the Cromwell Road to try to find the Peregrines there and prove it's a different pair. But they weren't visible. Well, I will keep trying.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was enjoying his lunch while his mate and son waited for their turn -- the young one still hasn't been chased away. The female sent off another gull that was getting too close.

A young Lesser Black-Backed Gull balanced carefully on a plastic buoy at the Lido.

The marble fountain in the Italian Garden is running low, producing just enough of a trickle to amuse a Black-Headed Gull. Many birds like the sensation of water running over their feet. Also the water in this fountain, which comes out of a borehole at at steady 10°C, is a little warmer than the surrounding air.

The gull who guards the landing stage at the Diana fountain had gone into the fountain enclosure to find worms brought up by the drizzle.

There were just three Cormorants on the fallen poplar in the Long Water, where a few weeks ago you could sometimes see 20.

A few more stood on the posts at Peter Pan. A young one was preening.

Two of the young Moorhens in the Italian Garden probed the gaps between the paving stones.

The Mute Swan family have taken to hanging around in the water below the Triangle car park. The point of this is that people arrive in cars with bread, can't be bothered to walk any distance, and chuck it into the lake here. There are usually plenty of Coots for the same reason.

A brighter picture from yesterday by Duncan Campbell: a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee sunning itself on a tree.

More Robins

Six Robins were singing in the Rose Garden today. Here are some of them.

Several Jays spotted Julia and me near the Speke obelisk and flew in to demand peanuts.

A Magpie looked splendidly shiny in the low winter sunlight.

The Little Owl was more or less visible. I don't think we're going to get a better view of her this year, but I will have a try at getting a usable image when she emerges to hunt at dusk. However, she doesn't generally come out till it's too dark to take any kind of a picture.

The usual pair of Pied Wagtails were working their way round the Serpentine.

I was wondering about the number of these in the park. Vinny the policeman told me that he'd seen a dozen on the Parade Ground early in the morning before the disturbance of the Winter Wasteland started up and drove them away. This is most encouraging.

The Black-Headed Gull EZ73301 pushed another off the No Swimming sign near the Dell restaurant. It's clearly a high-status bird and can claim its territory.

The same is true of EZ73323 on the other side of the lake ...

... and, of course, the gull that rules the landing stage near the Diana fountain. But look what happens when it flies away: within minutes seven have settled on this handy perch.

A Grey Heron waded up the edge of the Long Water.

Another added to the ornamentation of the Italian Garden.

The teenage Great Crested Grebe was fishing by itself, a big step forward in its development. It caught a fish, which sadly I couldn't film as the moment it surfaced it was attacked by a gull and had to dive. The music in the background comes from a cellist busking on the dam at the end of the Serpentine, a good spot for making money as it's crowded with people going to and coming from the Wasteland.

The pair of Gadwalls in the Italian Garden, which have been here for some time, are now only part of a small population, I think at least ten, here and on both lakes.

Four more passed in front of a pair of Shovellers on the gravel strip in the Long Water. The Shoveller drake can be seen raising his bill in a peculiar way ...

... and another was doing the same at the Vista. Perhaps this is some kind of Shoveller signal.

Rival songs

It was a slightly drizzly and very uneventful day, and I'm afraid that today's pictures are dull. At least the scene was livened by four Robins singing in the Rose Garden. Perhaps the awful Christmas songs coming over from the ice rink in the Winter Wasteland are seen as rivalry and they strive to compete. Here are two of them.

A Wren was jumping around in the Dell.

Starlings wandered over the grass by the Round Pond, with a flock of Greylag Geese in the background. I think the Starlings' main food source here is wireworms, which are not actually worms but the larvae of the click beetle, as I have often seen one bring up one of these.

The Little Owl was in her usual place, though it took a second visit before she came up to look over the edge.

A small family of Magpies lives by the Diana fountain.

The Pied Wagtail pair were running around the edge of the Serpentine. The male landed on a buoy at the Lido ...

... and came ashore to search through the dead leaves.

It's always the same pair and I never see any others in Hyde Park, though there are quite a few at the Round Pond. But when the Wasteland has been dismantled you see plenty of them on the ruined ground. Evidently they fly in and out, though heaven knows where from.

And there's still only the one young Grey Wagtail, which was on the edge at the Lido restaurant terrace. But these certainly come and go, as I've seen them streaking up Sloane Street from a small colony at the old coal wharf by Chelsea Bridge.

A Black-Headed Gull preened its immaculate feathers beside the Serpentine.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was washing his face after a bloody lunch.

Cormorants fished along the edge of the reed bed by the Italian Garden, catching any fish that carelessly came out from the shelter of the reeds.

A Grey Heron was inside the reed bed, looking for fish in the watery gaps.

The old heron was stolidly guarding his turf by the Henry Moore sculpture.

The youngest Great Crested Grebe was with its parents by the Serpentine outflow.

The Mallards that visit the Dell were away, allowing a Moorhen to return to its favourite rock in the stream.

A female Gadwall was by herself at the Lido, probably glad to be away from the drakes bickering over her.

The Black Swan on the Round Pond is now so much a part of the scene that I forget even to look at him. But here's a pleasing picture by Julia.