The Swifts arrive

It was a cold day with a sharp north wind, but the Swifts have arrived. A party of about 30 was screaming around the weathervane of the Lido restaurant.

There were more over the Round Pond, but understandably no sign of the Little Owl. A pair of Great Crested Grebes were on the pond, evidently having flown up from the Long Water where there is now only one pair. The pond has plenty of fish but no cover at all, so they never stay here long.

One of the Mandarin drakes had also come up, probably needing a bit of peace after the constant bickering of the others on the Serpentine. Usually when females are nesting the males are quite easy together, but something seems to have got into those three.

The successful Egyptian Goose mother led her eight teenagers across the pond. They are almost full grown now. It's a fine achievement, but thank goodness Egyptians aren't always so successful or we souldn't be able to move for the crowds of them.

On the Serpentine, the solitary Gadwall drake by the boat hire platform is already going into eclipse, with patches of female-type brown feathers appearing.

A Grey Wagtail was hunting on the edge of the lake at the end of the Lido restaurant terrace. The place is shaded by bushes and can't be viewed from the shore -- the video was shot from the jetty. This privacy makes it a popular spot for wagtails hunting insects.

A couple of minutes later a Pied Wagtail turned up in the same place.

A young Grey Heron on the big fallen poplar in the Long Water is probably one of the two surviving offspring from the first nest on the island , which was started last December.

The third brood of young herons are now permanently out of the nest, so there are now eight young this year, with the possibility of more if another pair get round to nesting.

A heron landed on the shore by the Mute Swan and Coots' nests by the Diana fountain landing stage. Both the residents were annoyed, and the swan hissed and the Coots squawked at it.

The heron left hastily. Perhaps the incident gives a clue as to why swans and Coots are happy to nest together.

The male swan on the Long Water had nothing to do while his mate was sitting on the nest, and wandered off. But he couldn't stop picking up straw and arranging it, as if he was building the nest. He started by pulling bits off the Coots' nest, which is now abandoned.

The Coots and their eight chicks in the Italian Garden fountain discovered a lot of insect larvae just below the surface. The chicks fed themselves as fast as they could, and were given extras by their parents.

A Blackbird near the Flower Walk added itself to the collection of pictures of birds gathering insects for their nestlings.

The Long-Tailed Tit family at the northwest corner of the bridge were whizzing around in the leaves. An adult came out on a twig for just long enough to be photographed. Its tail is frayed from nesting.

A Starling was ruffled and cross after being pointlessly attacked by a Carrion Crow at the leaf yard.

A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was having a great time in a rugosa rose in the Rose Garden. All bees love the abundant pollen of these roses and go wild when they find one, rolling around frantically to pick up as much as possible.

An Early Bumblebee browsed on a green alkanet flower by the leaf yard. They seem to have a particular liking for green alkanet, and when I see one it's almost always on this plant.

Long-Tailed Tit family at Peter Pan

A large brood of Long-Tailed Tits, perhaps more than one family, were dashing around and squeaking in the trees at Peter Pan. Here are two of the young ones.

Their parents were hard at work catching insects for them.

The young in the nest in the Rose Garden haven't emerged yet, but their parents are just as busy.

Blue Tits are nesting in a lamp post at the bottom end of the Triangle car park. Several of the gas lamps in Hyde Park are used in this way every year.

A Starling flew in and out of a nest in the eaves of the Buck Hill shelter to feed its chicks, which you can hear begging frantically. The open eaves were blocked up with planks to stop the birds from nesting there, but the agile Starlings simply climb around the obstacles.

An adult on the path below was busy collecting insects.

A Jackdaw waited for a peanut in the motheaten box tree at the bridge.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond stayed on her shady branch in the middle of the lime tree all day. With the leaves fully out she is very hard to see, let alone photograph, and this is the best I could manage.

Three Cormorants perched on the fallen poplar at the Vista.

There is a new Moorhen family on the Long Water under the edge of the Italian Garden. The four chicks are being fed by the parents, but also browsing on algae themselves.

The Coot nest on the wire baskets at the bridge hasn't hatched yet. A parent was turning the eggs.

That nest is firmly anchored to some twigs that are sticking out of the basket. But there's a new one at the other end of the bridge and it doesn't look firmly anchored at all, bobbing in the waves. However, Coots are skilled nest builders and they have probably managed to fix it by sticking twigs into the basket from above.

The single Egyptian gosling on the south side of the Serpentine had been taken across the lake by its parents and was by the island, where it was attacked by a young Herring Gull.

But it's now too big to be grabbed, and later I found it back on the usual shore preening calmly as if nothing had happened.

A Brimstone butterfly visited a vetch flower on Buck Hill.

Reed Warbler by the Italian Garden

A Reed Warbler sang in the little reed bed under the edge of the Italian Garden. There's a pair here.

A Song Thrush was also unusually visible when it came to the front edge of the lawn by the Henry Moore sculpture to scold a Magpie. A pair is nesting here.

In the bushes nearby, one of the nesting Robins was digging among some rotten wood and came up with a caterpillar.

A Starling by the leaf yard rushed around busily but didn't find anything while I was there.

A Carrion Crow enjoyed a bathe in the Serpentine, shook off some of the water and flapped soggily away.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond looked down from a branch in the lime tree, chewing a leaf stem. Perhaps the sap of this fragrant tree has a sweet taste.

The water lilies in the Italian Garden have started coming up, and the leaves provide cover for small fish. The local Grey Heron knows this well.

Six of the eight Coot chicks were scooting around on the water being fed, while two remained in the nest.

Two very aggressive birds, Mute Swans and Coots, manage to nest close to each other without friction. There must be some mutual advantage in this arrangement, which is quite common. This is at the Diana fountain reed bed, and  there is another example at the swan nesting island on the Long Water.

The swans nesting on the bank at the Lido came down to the water to feed. There don't seem to be any eggs in the nest yet, though you can never be sure as swans are very good at covering them up when they leave.

The pair at the east end of the Lido have become so casual that they don't even bother to go behind the fence. The place in the reeds where they are supposed to nest is at the right of the picture. Maybe they'll have the sense to use it when the female starts laying eggs.

A female Mallard trotted along the edge of the Serpentine, scooping up algae as she went.

A Speckled Wood butterfly settled on a leaf in the Dell. It's much the most numerous species at the moment.

A striking flower near the Big Bird statue turns out to be an Austrian Copper Rose, but it has been saddled with the unattractive botanical name of Rosa foetida.

Massacre of the insects

Apologies for the late appearance of today's post. My computer is misbehaving, and there may be further delays over the next few days till I can get it mended.

In one short section of the path beside the Long Water a Starling was collecting caterpillars for nestlings in the Buck Hill shelter ...

... a Robin was doing the same for a nest in the bushes ...

... and a Song Thrush was gathering insects in the grass. The park has an abundance of insects of all kinds, as pesticides are not used anywhere, but they are certainly getting hit hard at the moment.

Ahmet Amerikali found the first young Long-Tailed Tits out of the nest at the northwest corner of the bridge. Here are his pictures of one with a parent ...

... and alone. And just think of how may insects it took to grow that little bird.

There was another Song Thrush in a tree near the leaf yard, I think a female because there was a male singing inside the yard.

A male Blackcap sang beside the Long Water. It's been a good year for them and they are all over Kensington Gardens.

It wouldn't be a proper day without the demands of the hungry Blue Tits in the Rose Garden.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was almost impossible to see when I first visited her tree, but later she came out on a high branch from which she looked down curiously.

The Grey Herons at the west end of the island were together, the first time for some days. But will these vague birds ever manage to breed? 

There are now two pairs of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls on the Long Water, one on the posts at Peter Pan ...

... and the other on the posts where the ill-fated raft was moored. We don't usually have more than one pair on this part of the lake. It's bad news for the Coots.

The single Coot chick from the nest in the boathouse was scooting around picking midges off the surface of the lake. All the water birds are partial to midges, of which there are enormous numbers, but chicks in particular need the protein they provide for growth.

Another single survivor, the Egyptian gosling on the south side of the Serpentine, growing fast in the care of its solicitous parents.

The male Mute Swan at the bopathouse was guarding the egg while the female was out feeding. But there's still only one egg.

Tom was at Rainham Marshes, where he got pictures of a Ruddy Shelduck flying ...

... and a Blue-Winged Teal passing a Redshank ...

... and, to continue the theme of insects being eaten, a remarkable shot of a Hobby catching a dragonfly.