Excellent news: the young Grey Heron which had its beak caught in a bit of plastic mesh has been released. It came ashore near Bluebird Boats, and Mateusz managed to catch it in a net. With a bit of help he disentangled the mesh, and the bird was soon released. This video was taken by an onlooker.

Later I saw it on one of the reed rafts at the east end of the lake, with its feathers still ruffled but looking perfectly calm -- I don't think herons are capable of looking happy.

This is the thing that was caught on the heron's beak, a nylon net which had contained a ball. The knob is where the cardboard label was. Carelessly dropped in the lake, it became a deadly trap.

Over its five-day ordeal, the heron had been coming quite close to people, almost as if it sensed that they could help, but it panicked when anyone made a move. Mateusz was able to catch it not only because he had a suitable net (which has to be hastily mended before it was used), but because the bird was on the other side of a barrier left over from the swimming event, and thought that this kept humans at a safe distance.

After that, everything else was an anticlimax. Both the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull's mate and the Lesser Black-Back with pale legs were having a go at pigeons, without success while I was there. The second gull had to be content with a bit of bread it stole from a goose.

One of the Moorhens in the Dell sprinted along the edge carrying a leaf ...

... and plunged into the stream and added it to the latest nest.

The four chicks trotted around on the bank.

The white Mallard was preening his shining feathers at the Lido restaurant.

But he was outdone in splendour by a Starling on the railings.

A heavy shower brought up worms, and a lot of Blackbirds came out in the Flower Walk to dig them up. This is an immature male who has not yet developed his yellow bill and eye ring.

A Mistle Thrush was pulling out wireworms under a tree near the Dell. It looked very dark in the shade, and at first I thought it was a Song Thrush, but the pattern of the spots on its front is unmistakable.

A Magpie was exploring a puddle, in which it found several unidentifiable tiny creatures among the dead leaves.

Both the Little Owls near the leaf yard were in the chestnut tree next to the nest tree. But both of them were in places where it was impossible to get a reasonable picture. Later the female owl flew over to the nest tree and posed obligingly.

Great Crested Grebes were racing all over the Long Water. Two were having a territorial dispute.

A chick was chasing its parent to take a fish.

This is the parent's-eye view of a chick arriving at full speed.

But a Black-Headed Gull refused to shift off its post when another one tried to knock it off.

The dominant male Mute Swan on the Long Water was having a flap. His new flight feathers are coming along, but not yet fully grown.

A newly arrived Black Swan was seen on Saturday both at the London Wetland Centre in Barnes, and on Barn Elms Playing Fields nearby (see the London Bird Club Wiki). Could it be our friend from the park?

The young Grey Heron is still not free of the plastic tangled around its bill. Despite four days' starvation it can still fly, and had come up to one of the reed rafts off the Lido restaurant terrace, tantalisingly just out of reach of the people who were longing to help it. But it was looking tired and listless.

Later it flew down to its usual place on the little stream in the Dell. As I left, the heroic Malcolm was on his way from Richmond Park for yet another attempt to catch it.

The Moorhens have rebuilt their fifth temporary nest, which the heron trampled in his fury yesterday. One of the chicks was standing on it.

The feeder in the Rose Garden attracted a Coal Tit and a Chaffinch.

The pair of Nuthatches in the leaf yard came down to take seeds from the railings. One paused in a typical Nuthatch gravity-defying pose.

A Carrion Crow near the Albert Memorial sidled up expecting a peanut, which of course was provided.

The female Little Owl at the leaf yard was in her nest tree.

A party of volunteers were digging holes in Buck Hill and putting in vertical stacks of tree branches. The idea is that these will rot and provide a home for insects.

The Mistle Thrushes will be pleased.

The first Shovellers have returned, rather early this year. There were three on the Long Water. This is an immature drake.

There has also been an arrival of about 30 Pochards, mostly male. The sexes migrate separately, drakes first.

About the same number of Red-Crested Pochards were on the Long Water. But these are not migrants: they come in from Regent's Park at any time, and go back again as they please.

There is some kind of swimming event on the Serpentine which has caused a big disturbance. It brought the Canada--Bar-Headed hybrid goose over to the south shore.

The adult Great Crested Grebes are not bothered by human swimmers -- they can do this so much better. They are fading into their plain winter plumage.

They are also moulting their flight feathers, which in those that have bred have been damaged by being used as a playpen for the chicks. They will be able to fly again by the time frosty weather is possible, so they can move to the river if they need to, The young ones will also be airworthy by then (as far as a Great Crested Grebe is -- flight is not really their thing).

The Moorhens in the Dell were building a fifth nest.

But the poor young Grey Heron, still with the bit of plastic stuck to its bill, hungry and angry, came over and stamped it to bits.

It seems that it will have to wait until it is too weak to escape, and then Malcolm will get the plastic off and it may pull through. At least it can drink, and was doing so while I watched.

A visit to the Rose Garden revealed nothing but a Robin in a rose bush, ticking irritably at the weekend crowds.

Two young Wood Pigeons in the leaf yard were idly hassling a parent on a branch.

The female Little Owl was in the nest tree.

Three Jackdaws arrived and perched challengingly near, but she took no notice and after a while they flew away.

The white-faced Blackbird near the Italian Garden looked at me quizzically before coming out for a bit of biscuit.

One of the Hobbies was circling high over Kensington Gardens.

We had been worried that one of the pair had not made it back from Africa, after one briefly appeared in the spring and nothing more was seen for months. But then Paul saw two together, too far away to tell if they were both adults or one was a juvenile. Either way, it means that the parents are all right. We don't know where they nested, but probably at the far east end of Hyde Park or even in one of the garden squares on the far side of Park Lane. Recently they have been appearing more often, though soon it will be time for them to fly south again.

The Little Owls at the leaf yard had swapped their usual places. The female was in the nest tree ...

... and the male was in the tree just up the hill.

The pair of Nuthatches were in the leaf yard, calling to each other and coming down to take food from the railings.

A Wood Pigeon was eating unripe holly berries beside the Long Water, although there were some riper ones on the same tree.

I've often seen Wood Pigeons eating the unripe, hard berries of various trees. They actually seem to prefer them.

Someone had given a bit of bread to a Canada Goose, which was being chased by another Goose and also harried by a Black-Headed Gull.

It was flustered into dropping the bread, and the gull made off with it, pursued by two others.

A Great Crested Grebe chick on the Long Water made a frantic splashy rush to grab a fish from its parent.

The male of the pair of dominant Mute Swans on the Long Water was preening his regrowing wing feathers.

He still can't fly, and his mate is doing most of the work of repelling invaders from their territory.

I talked to Malcolm the Wildlife Officer. He said that the Black Swan had probably flown away. He keeps a very close watch on the lake, and if the swan had been killed by the dominant Mute pair, he would have seen the body by now.

I was talking to him because one of the Grey Herons is in trouble. It is the young one which until a few days ago was hanging around the restaurant. Now it has got a bit of plastic netting wrappped around its bill and can't shake it off, and is unable to eat. Malcolm has been trying to catch it for three days, an extremely difficult task.

The fine plastic netting used to wrap food and other small items is dangerous, and not only to herons. Small birds can get their feet tangled in it. The stuff doesn't rot and hangs around for years. There is a man who throws fat balls wrapped in this netting into the trees in Kensington Gardens. So far I have not been able to catch him at it. If anyone sees him doing this, please stop him and explain to him in the strongest possible way that his misplaced kindness is not just covering the trees with ugly litter, but actually doing harm.

Another two herons were more pleasantly engaged in chasing each other across the grass near the Serpentine Gallery.

This striking picture of a huge wasp nest was taken by Neil. It's in a horse chestnut tree across the path from the Henry Moore sculpture, and a few yards to the north.

A Grey Heron came in to land on a branch. Here it is with the brakes full on for a neat landing. You can see from the way the feathers are lifting on its wing that it's stalled and no longer creating lift.

Herons are very light for their size even by the standards of birds, weighing about 3lb on average. It seems odd that they need such enormous wings.

Later the heron went up to the edge of the Italian Garden and caught a perch.

A Mute Swan came charging down the Serpentine in a takeoff run.

No sooner had it got airborne than it changed its mind and came down again.

A Great Crested Grebe chick felt that its father wasn't feeding it fast enough, and gave him a sharp prod.

The adult is indisputably male, as you can see from his wide top crest. But there is a lot of overlap between the sexes and you can't always be sure.

A black lime tree neat the Dell restaurant was absolutely packed with Starlings.

A flight of Long-Tailed Tits made its way through the small trees on the edge of the Serpentine.

A Robin stared at the camera from a variegated holly bush in the Flower Walk.

The female Little Owl near the leaf yard was deep inside the chestnut tree. She looked rather irritably at me over the top of a branch and went back to sleep.

Otherwise it was rather a slow day, so here are three good photographs taken yesterday by Mike Meilack.

The female Kestrel was back in Kensington Gardens. A Magpie.stared at her impudently.

A Grey Wagtail perched on the wall of the Sunken Garden.

There are a lot of Dunnocks in the shrubberies here. This one cme out on the tarmac path, where its all-purpose camouflage makes it almost as inconspicuous as when it is in the dead leaves under a bush.