Grey and soggy

A dim day of persistent drizzle kept most of the small birds sheltering in the bushes, but a Robin ignored it and sang cheerfully in the leaf yard.

A male Blackcap appeared for a moment across the path. He was flying about busily with his mate collecting insects for a nest in the bushes. He had a small lump on his bill. It didn't look like an avian pox blister.

A Dunnock hopped up the steps by the bridge.

Starlings probed the wet grass by the Italian Garden to find larvae. It's advisable to eat the find at once or another Starling may grab it.

A Pied Wagtail trotted through the foam at the edge of the Serpentine.

Another was using the landing stage as a hunting platform to catch midges.

Also after midges were Swifts ...

House Martins ...

... and Sand Martins.

While I was trying to grab these pictures a Grey Heron flew past the Lido restaurant.

The young ones looked out of the nest on the island. They'll be climbing about soon. Let's hope this doesn't cause friction with the sitting bird in the other nest, which is uncomfortably close.

Pigeon Eater and his mate were away and their place was taken by a two-year-old Lesser Black-Backed Gull. It was definitely trying to hunt pigeons, and made a lunge at a couple but missed. It's tempting to think that this was Pigeon Eater's offspring from a couple of years ago.

A Great Crested Grebe visited its mate on the second nest on the Long Water.

However, I haven't see any activity at the first nest for a couple of days.

A Coot spent some time feeding one of its seven chicks in the Italian Garden fountains.

All was well at the Mute Swans' nest at the Serpentine outflow, despite the presence of foxes across the path in the Dell.

However, there are reports that the female swan nesting at the boathouse is ill, and when I passed the nest it was the male sitting on it and two eggs had rolled out again. The prospect isn't good. No nest here has ever succeeded.

The Egyptian Geese had taken their goslings across the horse track to browse.

The Mallard family had just been feeding there and were returning to the lake. The ducklings now look like smaller copies of their mother. No doubt some of them are drakes but they won't start to look different for a while.

Another Great Crested Grebe nest, and more Reed Warblers

There is now a second Great Crested Grebe nest on the Long Water, in an oak on the east side near the bridge. This place has been used in previous years.

Three male Reed Warblers  were singing in the Diana memorial reed bed and I got a picture of one of them. There was also one singing on the Long Water.

Otherwise it wasn't much of a day for small birds, but I found a new Robin in a holly near the Vista ...

... and the usual Wren in the leaf yard.

A Pied Wagtail hunted insects from the jetty.

Overnight rain had left puddles for a Carrion Crow to dunk a bit of bread.

One of the Peregrines passed over the Albert Memorial.

A Grey Heron searched for twigs to add to its nest, but rejected them because they were too small.

The larger stems were too flexible to snap and too tough to bite through, so it was on the wrong plant which was a patch of dead purple loosestrife left from last year.

However, the two nests above have plenty of twigs of adequate size got from various trees and bushes. The chicks are in the nest at top right.

Meanwhile the two young herons from the first nest have both survived the dangerous transition to independence. One was fishing on the small waterfall in the Dell ...

... and the other was at the reed bed east of the Lido.

Just round the corner from here the Mallard family with five ducklings were alarmed for a moment by a passing adult heron, but the ducklings are now too large to snatch so all was well.

Yesterday Virginia saw a Mandarin drake on a branch of the willow at the Triangle. The single female has been out of sight for a while and is probably nesting nearby.

Today there were three drakes on the path underneath, and a fourth farther down the lake.

The Egyptian goslings on the Serpentine have paid the price for their parents' inattention and are now down to four.

The Coot family from the nest at Peter Pan came into sight for a moment.

The five chicks in the northeast pool in the Italian Garden were in hot pursuit of their parents.

Bluebells and buttercups beside the Long Water.

The first Great Crested Grebe chick

A Song Thrush beside the Long Water was spurred into song by hearing another on the other side of the lake, which you can just distinguish in the first 10 seconds of this video.

A video from Spain. Nightingales sang in a street in Alcalá de Henares, famous for its ancient university, and the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes. This was filmed at night by Emilio Pacios.

A Blackbird sang in an ash tree beside the Long Water.

Julia filmed a Great Spotted Woodpecker hard at work outside her window in Fulham.

A Wren climbed down a tree in the leaf yard in the same way as a Nuthatch, and struck just the same pose.

Another was singing on the railings at Mount Gate ...

... where the pair of Robins came out for pine nuts.

A Robin in the leaf yard brought a worm to its nest. It would have to peck it to pieces to feed the nestlings, but Robins are quite able to do that.

A Pied Wagtail perched on a buoy at the Lido.

Virginia got this remarkable backlit shot of one at sunset on the Round Pond.

Four Carrion Crows squabbled over a bit of food.

The Great Crested Grebes nesting on the Long Water have at least one chick, which you can just see on the right of this very distant shot.

A parent brought it a fish which was too large for it to eat. They are going to have a problem feeding the young because this year's fish fry haven't yet grown to a suitable size, and they don't have the Little Grebes' knack of breaking up large fish by shaking them violently.

A pair of Coots were building a nest in a silly place on the edge of the Serpentine. They'll give up in a couple of days. Even Coots eventually realise that a site is hopeless.

The Mute Swan nesting at the Lido restaurant terrace has even more large bits of branch on her nest. It seems that her mate is hauling them over to show off his strength.

The different-sized Egyptian goslings are down to five, sad but inevitable. They were alone at the Triangle and their mother, who should have been looking after them, was off with her mate fighting another Egyptian pair. These pointless territorial conflicts cost a lot of goslings.

The pair with the eldest gosling had moved to the landing stage by the Diana fountain, a good place safe from dogs. The gosling was preening its semi-adult feathers.

The five Mallard ducklings are beginning to look like adults too.

Two crows in the fountain

A pair of Carrion Crows landed on the marble fountain in the Italian Garden to dunk some bread they had won from an unwary human.

One stayed to check the algae-covered edge of the basin, looking for small edible creatures. Moorhens also search these places, so there must be something here.

A Magpie perched in hawthorn blossom by the Queen's Temple.

There was a Red Admiral butterfly on another branch.

I had come here to look for a Whitethroat, and heard one singing at the back of the temple. It came into view but was behind twigs so I didn't get a picture, but a singing Blackcap was more obliging.

The Coal Tit at Mount Gate now allows itself to be photographed because it knows it will be rewarded with pine nuts.

The Robins are less patient and hop around irritably till you feed them.

The Peregrines haven't been spending much time on the barracks recently but the female showed up today, I think always by herself.

The young Grey Herons in the nest can hardly be called chicks now. They are rapidly approaching adult size.

The Coot chicks are losing the red feathers on their head which stimulate adults to feed them. Their parents are still devotedly bring them food, although the young are also feeding themselves.

The Mute Swan nesting at the outflow stood up to preen, revealing six eggs.

The swan at the boathouse has recovered her egg which had rolled out of the nest yesterday. The pair think that plastic food containers are a fine nest ornament.

A pair of Canada Geese with two goslings went up the Long Water, safer from gulls than the Serpentine but they may have trouble with the killer swan.

The eldest Egyptian gosling at the Lido is properly wary. It noticed an approaching dog even before its parents did, and headed down the slope towards the safety of the water.

A Mandarin drake preened his fantastic feathers on the edge.

A Honeybee revolved in two rugosa roses. All bees are fond of these roses, which have a lot of pollen and an open shape that makes it easy to get at. Three ladybirds, probably Harlequins, were on the second rose and two seemed to be mating.

Green spurge flowers at Peter Pan attracted a Flavous Nomad Bee, Nomada flava ...

... and a Common Banded Hoverfly, Syrphus ribesii.