Coal Tits everywhere

Once Coal Tits trust you they chase you incessantly. This is one of the pair in the Dell ...

... the pair in the Flower Walk ...

... and the pair in the Rose Garden.

The Coal Tits at the bridge also came out but I didn't get a picture.

A Long-Tailed Tit by the bridge caught a midge in the leaves.

There were some hardy Common Wasps at work in the fatsia bush here.

A Robin near the Buck Hill shelter had found a tiny larva.

A Jay waited in a nearby tree ...

... and a Magpie on the other side of the path perched among premature hazel catkins. The corkscrew hazel in the Dell in the first picture is also beginning to put out catkins.

The usual Carrion Crows arrived on the parapet of the Italian Garden to demand peanuts.

Ahmet Amerikali was in Battersea Park, where he found one of the Firecrests -- there are two pairs --

... and a Goldcrest.

The Hyde Park gardeners have a machine for restoring grass which cuts grooves in the ground and drops grass seed into them, the idea being to stop Feral Pigeons from eating the seed. The pigeons deal with this easily: some of the seed gets spilt, and even the seed in the grooves can be picked out.

There was a sitting Grey Heron in the east nest on the Serpentine island. If it's in the same place tomorrow we can confidently say that there are eggs, but it may just have been trying the repaired nest out for comfort.

Pigeon Eater was lying down on the Dell restaurant roof. The remains of a pigeon picked clean on the shore below showed that he was digesting a large lunch.

A Coot under the willow at the bridge had a fine gold background.

The killer Mute Swan's family inspected the recently installed nesting raft by the new reed bed on the Serpentine. The killer has a much better place for a nest on the little island in the Long Water, so there's no reason for him to claim it -- though he might anyway.

A Gadwall drake preened his beautifully marked feathers on the fallen poplar at the Peter Pan waterfront.

Half an hour after the early midwinter sunset a Robin and a Song Thrush sang in the Flower Walk. I filmed this on my smartphone as they are better at filming in low light than cameras, but the complex pattern of twigs in the thrush clip was too much for its little brain and the image is twitchy.

An appropriate attitude

A Coal Tit in the Flower Walk struck an appropriate pose in the twisty twigs of the corkscrew hazel bush.

Another in the Rose Garden dashed about in a big California bay tree doing its best not to be photographed, but I got it after several minutes ...

... and rewarded it with a pine nut.

Half a dozen Blue Tits also turned up to be fed.

A male Blackbird was looking for worms in a flower bed.

A Robin beside the Long Water had the majestic gaze of a Roman emperor.

A Magpie waited in an oak sapling. Young oak trees keep their brown leaves on in winter, as do young beeches, but both drop their leaves when they get larger.

The male Little Owl on Buck Hill called several times from inside the hole, but wouldn't come out. It was a dark and slightly drizzly day so you couldn't blame him.

The female Pied Wagtail at the Lido carefully skirted a Moorhen. I kept filming because she then found a lot of the tiny white larvae which seem to be her main reason for hunting here. I have no idea what they are.

The male Peregrine was on the tower by himself as usual. He kept his back turned to the world and refused to look round.

When two Black-Headed Gulls are calling to one another it's very hard to know whether it's a pair displaying or whether it's rivals tring to establish dominance. You just have to wait and see what happens next.

A female Lesser Black-Backed Gull flirted with an 18-month old Herring Gull, not just the wrong species but much too young to be doing such things -- it takes four years for these big gulls to reach adulthood. He was encouraged and picked up a leaf, a sign of interest. (Incidentally, the female is not Mrs Pigeon Eater who is a model of good conduct.)

A Grey Heron in the middle nest was adjusting the twigs, and at one point sat down to see if it was comfortable.

This young heron is often seen fishing from the electric boat charging platform at the boathouse. I first photographed it here in June, soon after it had fledged.

The new swan nesting raft by the Diana reed bed is constantly claimed by a heron. It will have to move in spring when a pair of swans take a fancy to the place.

The Black Swan was with 4GIQ by the landing stage. I gave them sunflower hearts and the dominant Black-Headed Gull promptly arrived to grab some.

Two of the teenagers on the Long Water rested in the place they have flattened in the reeds, watched by a female Pochard.

The pair of Egyptian Geese who live in the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden ...

... spotted visitors feeding a squirrel, and hurred over to see if they would be fed too. They got a few scraps.

Blackbird singing in winter

It's unusual to hear a Blackbird singing in midwinter. This one was too close to the busy traffic on the bridge for a good recording, but it was pleasant to hear it.

Song Thrushes, on the other hand, are happy to sing on a sunny winter day and the one by the Diana fountain could be heard hidden in the middle of a holly tree as I went home towards sunset.

Long-Tailed Tits moved down the east side of the Long Water ...

... and a Goldcrest accompanied the flock. You often find small warblers in these flocks as well as various species of tit.

A Coal Tit in the Rose Garden dashed around to avoid being photographed, but eventually paused in a rose bush for long enough to get a picture. It was handsomely rewarded with pine nuts.

There seems to be a small flock of Blue Tits permanently here, perhaps a family group. You see far more of them than in the Flower Walk or at the bridge where other tits abound.

The male Chaffinch turned up. I haven't seen his mate for a while, but she has always been shy.

The usual Robin was waiting in the usual rose bush.

So was the one at Mount Gate, which I missed yesterday because it was too busy singing.

The female Pied Wagtail was hunting at the Lido.

A Jay stared from a tree by the Italian Garden.

The Grey Herons in the middle nest on the island had a little display ...

... before mating again.

The pair in the east nest were also in place, hard to photograph directly into the low sun.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull at the landing stage looked out from the head of the Big Bird statue.

The trees around the Long Water were crowded with gulls.

A Great Crested Grebe rested near the Serpentine outflow, keeping an eye open for danger. This seems to be the only one left on the Serpentine apart from the pair which may be either side of the bridge.

A pair of Egyptian Geese poked in fallen leaves by the leaf yard. Worms and insects are a welcome addition to their diet of grass and weeds.

Red berries on the other side of the path came from a Stinking Iris, Iris foetidissima. It's too far back from the railings to check whether it lives up to its name.

Two heron nests already active

The Little Owl on Buck Hill was in the same place on the tall lime tree.

It's a slightly awkward spot to photograph, and you have to go round the tree to find a clear place with the best available light. The owl is high enough not to be worried by this and observes you with mild interest. After a few days he will get bored and stop looking.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits whizzed through the trees below.

One of the Coal Tits in the Rose Garden stayed still just long enough for a picture.

The male Chaffinch was also here, waiting on a twig for some pine nuts to be thrown on the ground.

A Wood Pigeon stared down from a tree.

The usual Robin at Mount Gate was busy singing at the back of the bushes, but its mate came out.

The Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge is always keen to be fed.

The Song Thrush on the edge of the Diana fountain was enjoying an evening song in a tricky place to photograph.

A Jay looked expectant near the Italian Garden.

On the other side of the Garden a Carrion Crow called from the top of a horse chestnut tree. This is a pink-flowered horse chestnut, smaller and less vigorous than the white-flowered kind and with contorted twigs.

The female Pied Wagtail often seen on the edge of the Serpentine preened on a plastic buoy at the Lido.

Grey Heron pairs usually display to each other, but this one at one of the middle nests on the island wasn't wasting time in courtesies. He just flew in and jumped on his mate. She didn't seem to mind.

The nest at the east end had only one heron in it, but we know that there's a pair here and they are building. So two nests are going ahead.

Two pairs of Coots had a running fight on the Serpentine, causing agitation and chasing in the others around them.

The Moorhen in the Dell was on its favourite rock, undisturbed by Mallards. But it's alone and has been for some time after losing its mate to a fox. Other Moorhens have visited briefly and there have been mild flirtations, but none has taken.

Four Cormorants shone in the sunlight as they preened on the fallen poplar at the Peter Pan waterfront. The one on the left is young, with a white front.

The Black Swan followed 4GIQ across the Serpentine. She wasn't interested and soon went off by herself. I found him on the other side and consoled him with some sunflower seeds.

This female Tufted Duck has a broken leg that has set badly and she can't dive well. But she is staying alive and rushes about indomitably among the Mute Swans and Black-Headed Gulls.