Second pair of herons now sitting

A Grey Heron was sitting in the nest at the east end of the island, so it looks as if breeding is going ahead.

The herons in the upper nest on the island, where they are already sitting on eggs, were changing over. The one that had arrived was turning over the eggs to keep them evenly warmed before settling down.

The third pair don't seem to have started yet -- and, as we have seen in earlier years, they may hang around for months before they decide to go ahead. But I think this is the first time we've had two pairs breeding in December.

These are by no means the only herons, and there are non-breeding ones all around both lakes. One was fishing from the Coot nest at the bridge ...

... and another, seeing a few people eating on the Lido restaurant terrace, had turned up to see if anyone would feed it.

A Lesser Black-Backed Gull at the Triangle was pecking the meat out of a crayfish claw. It didn't have the whole crayfish, so probably it had found the remains of a dead one. The crayfish in the lake are not native but Turkish Crayfish, introduced unoffically many years ago by someone who wanted to catch them and sell them to restaurants, and used to have secret traps which he emptied early in the morning. The population goes through odd boom-and-bust cycles and sometimes you see a lot of dead ones on the shore.

A Black-Headed Gull dived repeatedly. I think it was trying to catch small fish. At one point it brought up a little bit of algae, which it discarded.

A young Cormorant stood on the peculiar blue plastic curves of an electric pedalo at its charging station. They are most un-boatlike craft, looking more like a group of armchairs in the Festival of Britain style of the 1950s.

A pair of Gadwalls dabbled in a patch of dead leaves at the edge of the lake. Both algae and any small creatures they can find in the water are acceptable.

They don't eat grass like the Wigeon that was here. I think this has finally left, as I haven't seen it for two days.

The young Mute Swans on the Long Water were down to the original five again. It looks as if their ferocious parents detected the intruder and chased it away. Let's hope it's all right. I didn't see it on the Serpentine.

The Egyptian Geese in the Italian Garden were keeping a lookout from the urns.

The Coot at Peter Pan has now rebuilt its nest to a respectable size, and was taking a rest. But it will probably resume its obsessional task.

A Pied Wagtail on the edge of the Round Pond came up close. If you stand in the direction they're going and simply stay still they will walk right past your feet.

A Blue Tit was checking twigs. As well as eating any insects or larvae they find, I think they peck bits out of leaf buds. But they don't do much damage, as they are small and there aren't many of them -- unlike the ravaging Rose-Ringed Parakeets, which can wreck a tree.

The Blue Tit in the Rose Garden shrubbery came out to take pine nuts from the ground.

The Robin at the Henry Moore sculpture flew to my hand several times.

Snowdrops have come out in the North Flower Walk. I think these are the genuine wild kind. not the large cultivated variety seem earlier at the Dell.

A touch of colour to relieve a grey day: Ahmet Amerikali photographed this Goldcrest in Southwark Park.

Another breeding pair of herons?

The female Grey Heron in the nest at the east end of the Serpentine island was rearranging twigs in the nest. We know it's the female because ...

... she was soon joined by her mate. They had a little display and he preened her gently. It's looking as if they're going to go ahead with breeding, the second pair to start this winter.

At first sight this is a very ordinary picture of young Mute Swans on the Long Water. But there are six of them, and the killer swan has only five here. Has the young one from the Serpentine crept in to join the teenagers?

In fact the killer swan and his mate have six teenagers alive. But one of them had to be taken to the Swan Sanctuary to have a broken leg mended, and I think that regulations mean it has to stay there. Anyway it would be a risky step to try to return it to the family after so many months.

Ducks on the Long Water included half a dozen Gadwalls ...

... and there are a few Shovellers still here, including this drake looking very fine in the sunlight.

At the far end of the Serpentine, Pigeon Eater was thinking of lunch.

A bit of bread thrown into the water started a race which was won by a young Herring Gull.

The Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage was jealously guarding his territory.

Birds really don't like citrus fruit. Even a young Moorhen, a bird that will eat just about anything, abandoned a bit of orange at the Lido after a cursory peck and went off off to poke in the algae.

A Pied Wagtail wandered along the gravel strip in the Round Pond.

There was no sign of the Wigeon, but there were only a few Egyptian Geese and she may have gone off with the rest of the flock.

The number of Jackdaws here continues to increase, and they are now also all along the north edge of the Serpentine. Clearly they are breeding here, but oddly I've never noticed a young Jackdaw -- while young Carrion Crows and Magpies are common and we sometimes see young Jays too.

A crowd of Great Tits gathered in the winter flowering cherry at the southwest corner of the bridge.

The original pair of Great Tits that come to be fed in the Rose Garden has now expanded to eight. Word gets around in the tit world.

Customers also included a Coal Tit ...

... a Blue Tit raising its little crest ...

... and the male Chaffinch of the resident pair.

A white Feral Pigeon stood on the new marble bowl of the Huntress fountain.

A Robin in the North Flower Walk had a background of red dogwood stems.

A brief and distant view of the Peregrine

Since the male Peregrine got a new mate we haven't been seeing much of them. Their huge territory includes the towers of the Metropole Hilton hotel in the Edgware Road and the former Holiday Inn in the Cromwell Road, and to the northeast the Trellick Tower in Golborne Road, so they have plenty of other places to go. Today the male (I think, from his habit of turning his back on the scene) paid a short visit to the Knightsbridge Barracks. I took a precautionary shot from a mile away in case he flew off, which he did before I got any closer.

A brief sunny spell lit up the front of this Blackbird and, seeing it from a distance, I thought for a moment that we might have a Ring Ouzel. But no, it was just an ordinary young one, still rather ginger in colour.

The Kensington Gardens Chaffinch, accompanied by his mate, intercepted me at the leaf yard and perched on high branches so that it was quite hard to throw pine nuts high enough for them to catch.

Another female Chaffinch appeared at Mount Gate ...

... accompanied by the usual Coal Tit which came down to my hand.

Long-Tailed Tits flew through the trees at the back of the Lido.

The Robin by the Henry Moore sculpture has settled into the usual routine of standing on my hand and taking half a dozen pine nuts. All Robins, and only Robins, seem to do this when they get confident.

The Grey Heron pair at the active nest on the island had just changed places on the eggs, and were having a conversation.

The new arrival did a bit of tidying to the twigs as its mate flew off, and settled down comfortably.

Pigeon Eater, on his patch at the Dell restaurant, had a background of Egyptian Geese.

The Egyptians at Peter Pan were keeping an eye on their territory from the sawn-off poplar.

This Egyptian at the Round Pond, small in size and evidently female, is the blondest I've seen yet, much paler than our original Blondie who was hatched in 2011.

More Egyptians and some Canadas provided an escort for the Wigeon.

Gadwalls are only occasional visitors to the park, but at the moment we have a good many. They stay in pairs more than other ducks, and today there were three pairs feeding at the Lido.

Three Cormorants were fishing inside the boathouse, but they kept diving and I could only get a shot of two at once.

The Moorhen at the Vista stood on a low branch just above the water.

The Giant Chicken, Pullus giganteus, is now often seen in the park in December.

A dim day

It was a very dark grey day and it was hard to get any photographs, let alone good ones. But the usual crew were in the Rose Garden shrubbery expecting to be fed: the Robin ...

... the Coal Tit ...

... and the male Chaffinch.

The female was outside in the tall pleached lime hedge, and called for service from a high twig. She is now expert at catching pine nuts thrown up to her.

Long-Tailed Tits were going through the treetops by the Henry Moore sculpture.

Since we lost contact with the Little Owls near the Speke obelisk -- they moved to another place when their tree died a couple of years ago -- I hardly ever go there. But the local Great Tits seem to remember that I will feed them, and come out of the brambles and call.

A Pied Wagtail hunting along the edge of the Round Pond was exploring puddles left by the little waves breaking over the edge, but had to dodge to avoid getting drenched.

The Czech Black-Headed Gull is an old park hand, and knows that if it sidles around in front of someone having lunch on a bench, it will eventually get a bit of sandwich thrown to it.

The young Grey Heron was on the dead willow by the Italian Garden again. I photographed it here yesterday but couldn't resist another shot in this sculptural setting.

The herons' nests on the Serpentine island are all either claimed by pairs or next to a claimed nest, and this heron had nowhere to go. So it was checking out a basket put up in a tree. These were intended for herons to use but, unlike the birds in Regent's Park, ours don't seem to realise what they're for. It doesn't help that one of them wasn't properly attached and fell down. It's not clear how firmly this one is tied on.

Only some of the Great Crested Grebes are going into their breeding plumage. This male on the Serpentine hasn't started. I think they get darker, and keep their summer plumage for longer, the older they get.

A Moorhen in the Italian Garden was enjoying climbing about on the dead irises.

A Coot at Peter Pan had hauled up a hank of algae and was pecking at it.

The pair of Egyptian Geese were here, one on the sawn-off poplar where they have their noisy displays ...

... the other on a post. The places where they stand to proclaim their occupation of a territory are different from their nesting places, which are usually in a secluded tree and they don't make a noise while they are there.

Most of them have now realised that spring is the right time to breed, but there are still a few clueless pairs that try it on in midwinter.

There were only a few Egyptians on the Round Pond, and the Wigeon had only two to protect her.

With few people in the park, the Greylags were straying around the cycle track. They take no notice of cyclists or runners charging through the middle of the flock.