The black swans were nesting on the small island at the Palace end of the lake, and the coots had set up nest along the edge of the lake.
Nesting coots - Fulica
Australian Black Swan - Cygnus atratus
The mute swans were in abundance - one appeared to have adopted 2 white pekin ducks who were following the swan around as do cygnets when they are first born.
Mute Swan - cygnus alor with American Pekin Ducks - Anas Platyrhynchos
The Egyptian geese had hatched their chicks who were running around beside the lake, originally introduced as an ornamental wildfowl species, it escaped into the wild and now breeds successfully in this feral state (www.rspb.org).
Egyptian goslings - Alopochen aegyptiacha
The park certainly has a cosmopolitan feel to it both not only with all the tourists but with the international bird population too!
On my last visit I captured a great image of the Heron standing on the bank, but I wanted to improve on the background which was distracting to the overall image. I found the Herons at the Horseguards Parade end of the lake along with Cormorants and the Pelicans.
The herons, whilst not tame by any means, have adapted to living in an urban environment and are much less disturbed by the constant hord of tourists that flock to see them. Today there were two herons - on on the bank of the Lake and the other smaller bird on a wooden bridge structure.
I took images of both birds and captured the heron on the bank taking off in flight using a hand held 100 - 400mm lens.
Grey Heron Ardea cinerea
The weather was extremely hot and sunny, the light particularly challenging as it was quite harsh and contrasty, but I feel that my compositions improved and I managed to capture some excellent images of birds in flight including swans and the cormorant.
Mute swan - (Cygnus olor) coming into land
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