Gathering worms

A Blackbird collected worms for his nestlings in the Dell. The method is to find and pull up several worms and leave them -- they won't dig back in immediately -- and then rush around picking them up.

Another Blackbird sang in a treetop near the obelisk commemorating John Hanning Speke, the 19th century explorer of Africa who didn't discover the source of the Nile. He did manage to be the first European to see Lake Victoria.

A Starling in the next tree was bringing a caterpillar to its nest.

A Greenfinch sang its peculiar wheezing song on top of a hawthorn tree near Peter Pan, surprisingly without opening its beak. The commotion at 14 seconds is a Great Tit impatient with me filming and wanting to be given a pine nut.

A Wren sang while leaping around in a bush in the Rose Garden.

A Great Tit perched in the hawthorn bush by the leaf yard that seems to have both pink and white flowers. If you look more closely you can see that it's two separate bushes growing inches apart which have intertwined.

A female Pied Wagtail trotted through the daisies in the Diana fountain enclosure. There were several of them hunting insects here.

Many species of bird like dandelion leaves, and if you see Rose-Ringed Parakeets or Wood Pigeons feeding on the ground that's always what they're eating.

In the first 10 seconds of this video you can hear in close succession the songs of a Robin, Cetti's Warbler, Blackcap and Song Thrush.

The Grey Heron chicks on the island are growing fast. I couldn't catch them both looking out of the nest at the same time.

The seven Egyptian goslings lead a perilous life. Their parents were taking them across the open lake.

The single gosling at the Lido was on the grassy bank with its mother ...

... the five Mallard ducklings were on the shore ...

... beside a preening Mandarin drake ...

... and the single duckling was farther out but still close to its mother.

But sadly the Greylags have lost two goslings overnight and are down to three.

The main difference in danger is that the Greylags are at the east end of the Serpentine where the Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-Backs collect on the moored boats. There are only a few gulls between the island and the bridge.

A squirrel came down to the Serpentine shore to drink.

The 2024 Serpentine Gallery pavilion is going up. It's by the Korean architect Minsuk Cho and called 'Archipelagic Void', and its principal feature will be a hole in the middle. If you really want to, you can read about it and see pictures here.

Well, never mind its aesthetic qualities, what concerns me is that almost none of the designers of the pavilions have any conception of what a temporary building is. Here we have massive concrete foundations and steelwork that look as if they were meant to last centuries. But the thing is only going to be open from June to October.

One more Greylag gosling

A Long-Tailed Tit collecting midges for its nestlings paused in the variegated holly tree near the Vista.

This tree is very popular with songbirds and must be unusually full of insects. It's a rather sickly tree and dead in places, which may explain that (or it may not). There was also a Coal Tit ...

... and a Blackbird.

The male Blackbird from the Dell was out on the east lawn collecting worms for his young. He also had some midges. I wonder how they catch them -- they're not built for grabbing insects in midair like a tit.

The Coal Tit at Mount Gate appeared as usual ...

... and so did the pair of Robins.

The Dunnock here is getting quite bold, lured by pine nuts thrown on the ground for it.

A Wren posed grandly on a stump in the shrubbery behind the Big Bird statue.

A male Blackcap stared out of a tree in the leaf yard.

Ahmet Amerikali reports that the Goldcrests in the yew by the bridge have recovered from their nest being robbed and are bustling about in the tree as usual. He sent this picture.

The Coots in the southwest pool in the Italian Garden seem to have lost two chicks and are down to seven. Five of them were back at the nest sheltering from the chilly wind.

The five Greylag goslings were grazing under the trees on the edge of the Serpentine. Their greenish-grey colour is a good camouflage.

Another pair have just one. I could only photograph their mother because the gander was pecking my shins trying to chase me away. I apologised and backed off.

There are still seven Egyptian goslings at the boathouse, in spite of their tendency to wander off on to the open water where any passing gull can make a snack of them.

The older single gosling of the pair at the Lido was still in good shape.

The Mute Swan nesting beside the Lido restaurant terrace has been given some grass cuttings to make her nest more comfortable. She was passing the time of her long weary incubation -- typically 36 days -- by rearranging them.

The swan at the boathouse likes to ornament her nest with miscellaneous rubbish.

It was too cold to be a good day for insects, but a hardy Buff-Tailed Bumblebee was out on the Mexican orange in the Rose Garden.

Greylag goslings

Although Blackbirds are in sharp decline in the park they are very noticeable at this time of year when the males are singing constantly. I heard five around the lake. This one was singing in the leaf yard.

The Long-Tailed Tits nesting in the Rose Garden pergola were busy in the bushes looking for insects for their young. One perched in an azalea.

A Wren watched them from the next bush.

The pair of Jays near the Italian Garden that take peanuts from my hand have been away for a while, but are now back and as hungry as ever. Perhaps their supply of buried acorns for the winter has finally given out.

A Pied Wagtail on the edge of the Serpentine ignored a Feral Pigeon lumbering past.

The Coots in the northeast pool in the Italian Garden are down to five chicks, but these are now growing fast. They have turned out to be older than the nine in the other pool, and have entered the period of rapid growth sooner.

A Moorhen amused itself by running around the rail of a planter.

The Mute Swans nesting beside the Lido restaurant terrace now have two eggs ...

... and the pair at the boathouse have one. The female won't start incubating them until she has finished laying. In both places it was the male guarding the nest.

There are five new Greylag goslings on the Serpentine, the first of the year. Their father was keeping the other geese at a distance -- not that they presented any threat, but to show off to his mate about how tough he was.

An Egyptian Goose looked as if he was going to mate, but called off the attempt and started preening his mate instead, which annoyed her.

The pair with seven goslings were on shore and going across the horse ride to feed, but two goslings hadn't come with them and were scooting around on the lake catching midges, and in danger from gulls.

Their mother called urgently to them and they came ashore and trotted across the road.

The teenagers from Marble Arch were sprawled carelessly in the middle of the road, ignoring passing cyclists.

It wasn't the Mallard with five ducklings who lost one to the murderous drake yesterday. The five were safe in the reeds to the east of the Lido.

It was the mother with two younger ones, now reduced to one. She had taken refuge in the reed bed, and was preening while the little one imitated her.

The Mallards from the Dell had come out on to the lawn by the Rose Garden and were poking around amid a flock of pigeons, evidently looking for larvae and worms in the grass.

Two Mandarin drakes dozed side by side at the Triangle.

A pair of Cetti's Warblers

The Cetti's Warbler who sings beside the Long Water has a mate. I saw both of them flying through the bushes together and managed to get a picture of one. Not the world's best photograph, but these shy and elusive birds are very hard indeed to catch.

The Cetti on the Serpentine island was singing as well.

Also by the Long Water, a Long-Tailed Tit flew on to a blossoming hawthorn twig.

Two Blackcaps sang at each other from opposite sides of the path.

A Greenfinch wheezed and twittered from a treetop, but refused to turn round.

A Song Thrush was looking nervous ...

... because a Magpie ...

... and a Jay were staring at it from close quarters.

In the Flower Walk, I saw a furious male Blackbird chase a Jay out of the tree where his mate must have been nesting. There was no chance of getting a picture through the branches.

A Pied Wagtail trotted through the slime on the edge of the Serpentine.

No day would be complete without a visit from the Coal Tit at Mount Gate.

The pair of Robins also made an appearance.

I think this Herring Gull at the Triangle had killed the Feral Pigeon it was eating. The usual pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Back was busy with his own pigeon at the far end of the lake, and there were no other big gulls near. I've seen a Lesser Black-Back (not our usual one) killing a pigeon in the same place -- it's full of pigeons because people feed the birds here -- but this was nowhere to be seen. Also the pigeon was still almost entire and hadn't been partly eaten by a previous gull.

A young Grey Heron wandered too close to the female Mute Swan nesting by the Lido restaurant terrace, and her mate sped in to scare it off.

Tufted drakes engage in competitive runs and flights to impress females.

A pair of Gadwalls preened on the Serpentine. I'm very fond of these quiet coloured, well behaved ducks.

What a contrast with the violent behaviour of Mallard drakes. This one at the boathouse killed one of the five Mallard ducklings.

The drakes also drive the females way from their families in attempts to rape them. They seriously impair the survival of their species, and you would have thought that evolution would have bred this behaviour out of them. But it hasn't, any more than it has with murderous Mute Swans.

The Egyptian Geese were also at the boathouse with their seven goslings.

The eldest gosling was grazing at the Lido.

A pretty clump of columbine has come up beside the steps at the northwest corner of the bridge.