I went to Battersea Park on a sunny day at the end of February and discovered a pair of Mandarin ducks at the edge of the lake.
Mandarin drake doing his aerobics or practising his skateboarding!
The pair of Mandarins were watching me watching them!
The Mandarin drake fluffed up his feathers and made himself look very large
The pretty female relaxed at the edge of the lake
A pair of synchronised male Tufted ducks swam past
A Grey Heron stood at the edge of the lake and was being watched by a Black-headed gull
A male Norther Shoveler stopped shovelling for a few minutes near to some bubbling water
A female Northern Shoveler was in a shady part of the lake that was surrounded by trees
Long Catkins were hanging from branches at the edge of the lake
A Magpie perched on top of railings for a short while
Beautiful crocus growing in grass on a sloping mound
Carrion Crow admiring flowers in the sunshine
I was wishing that I could join this dog in one of the fountains in the park!
Brimstone butterfly feeding on tiny violets in the Old English Garden
near a Ladybird in the same flowers
Pretty mauve Scilla flowers - also in the Old English Garden
Back at the lake, I found two female Pochards
a distant Great Crested Grebe
and a pair of Northern Shovelers
It was lovely to see buds forming on a shrub at the edge of the lake
and some white Quince flowers
Finally, a pair of Great Crested Grebes at the edge of the island in the lake - one was adding bits and pieces to the nest underneath the overhanging branches
