Cygnets, goslings and other wildlife - late May in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

I visited Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens again on 21st May.  My camera felt in need of some fresh air, so we went for another long walk around the lakes.

I first encountered this female coot, sitting comfortably on a nest of twigs and green weed.  I expect it smelt terrible, but I doubt if the coot noticed that.

Then, in the distance, I saw this female mute swan with her five cygnets swimming around on the Long Water in Kensington Gardens.

Here she is again against a backdrop of green reeds.  This was in a section of the Long Water between the bridge that divides Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park.  Again the family was a fair distance away from me, so impossible to get a close photograph.

There is a row of posts across the lake and these were topped with a row of wall-to-wall gulls - mainly young herring gulls.  There was a larger gull, which I think maybe a lesser-backed gull, causing trouble in the section of the posts where an unfortunate pair of coots had stupidly decided to build a nest.  The lesser-back has removed a juvenile herring gull from the top of the post and it can be seen flying off.

The gulls were trying to get at the coot's nest to see if there were any young (or dinner) on it yet.  The coots were understandably rather concerned about this and both of them were standing on the nest and squawking at the gulls.

A little later I saw the mute swan and her five cygnets sailing past the fallen tree on the Long Water.

When I got as far as the Serpentine in Hyde Park, I was greeted by a Great Crested Grebe - one of my favourite water birds.

A leucistic female mallard with very light beige feathers was modelling on the path at the side of the lake.

There was a wood pigeon standing under this rather lovely maroon shrub at the top of the waterfall above the Dell.  I think the shrub is an Acer, but hope someone will correct me if it is not.

The wood pigeon then posed artistically in front of the rocks, daisies and lovely spiky green plant.

There were still some beautiful foxgloves growing on the patch of land just past the bridge above the Dell.  I love foxgloves!

I was now on the other side of the Serpentine, not far away from the cafe, when I saw this leucistic Canada goose with an unusual white face.

Is this a mirror image?  There were two tiny cute fluffy cygnets staring at one another on the lake.

In fact, the family comprised of five cute fluffy little cygnets.

The female mute swan was being very protective of her brood and made a lunge at this greylag goose.  It did not need to be told twice and took off very quickly, flapping it's huge wings.

Then mum and the five cygnets sailed serenely along the lake.

This is a close-up of one of the fluffy cygnets having a bit of shut-eye after all the excitement of the day.

There was a pair of greylag geese on the grass near the lake.  They had five young goslings in tow.

It was obviously hard work checking for danger near the goslings.  Here one of the parents has a corkscrew neck while searching all round for any hidden predators.

Oblivious of any potential danger, the cute fluff-balls continued searching for food in the grass.

Across the path, on the Serpentine, a family of Canada geese sailed past.  Here are mum and dad with their five yellow goslings.

What cuties this lot are!!

I saw so much wildlife on this walk round the park that I have, so far, only managed to download half my selected photographs to my blog.  I will try to post the others in the very near future.