Bad light didn't stop play

It was dark and misty, no kind of a day for photography. The small birds were hungrier than ever. Ten Great Tits in a bush in the Flower Walk were only part of the mob that emerged.

The Robin at Peter Pan provided a moment of colour when it came out for a pine nut.

But the Rose Garden shrubbery was much quieter than usual, and the only regular to appear was the male Chaffinch.

Two Wood Pigeons were browsing on the pansies in the winter border. They were mostly eating the leaves, though the flowers also look a bit chewed.

Pigeon Eater asserted his claim to his territory by calling, and chased off other big gulls. He doesn't pay any attention to the small Black-Headed Gulls, which he doesn't see as rivals.

The Grey Heron in the upper part of the double-decker nest on the island is definitely sitting. As I approached I saw it stand up, turn round, and settle down again. When it's resting on the eggs you wouldn't think there was a large heron in this quite small nest ...

... but just as I left it got up again for a few seconds. By this time I was in the wrong place for an unobstructed photograph.

The upper nest at the east end is also constantly occupied, and today there was a pair here. However, there is no sign of sitting, so it looks as if they are just claiming the site.

It's the same with this nest between the two: always a heron in it, but always standing up. Unlike the other two nests this one has never been the site of successful breeding, but there's always a first time.

The Great Crested Grebe on the left is the father of the other one. They were fishing together by the boathouses, under the platform for charging the electric boats. You now have to look closely to tell a teenager from an adult.

A Cormorant was fishing inside the boathouse, a good place as the shade makes fish feel safe and they tend to collect.

This young Cormorant under the Italian Garden looks as if it was standing on water, but in fact it's on the barely submerged iron grating of the old water filter.

I've never understood what the water filter is actually for. The marble fountain above it was made to distribute water from the borehole into the lake, and this water is clean and doesn't need filtration. But the filter was certainly a working part of the old steam-powered fountain system.

The land drain on the south side of the Vista collapsed years ago and the park management have given up hope of repairing it. Instead, they have fenced off the swamp where the water comes out of the break and declared that they are 'creating a marshland area'. Now the drain on the north side seems to be failing too, and water is gushing out of the pavement. This interested a Coot hoping that the turbulence would bring up edible creatures from the bottom ...

... and a Moorhen looking for things being swept over the edge.

The Wigeon, missing from the Round Pond yesterday, was back in her usual place today browsing happily on the well kept grass.

However, I haven't seen the Black Swan for several days. He came down from the Round Pond to the Serpentine and has now vanished. Could he possibly have known about the Black Swans in St James's Park and gone to join them? He was young when he arrived and I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he didn't know his way around the London parks.

A paperbush in the Dell is putting out its odd off-white fragrant flowers. The bark of these plants was used in Japan to make high-quality paper for banknotes, but now I suppose they're plastic like everyone else's.

By half-past two it was really too dark to take pictures, but as I went home I got a lucky final shot of the Robin at Mount Gate.

Still more Chaffinches

The familiar Kensington Gardens Chaffinch intercepted me on the way up the hill to the Round Pond.

He had brought not only his mate ...

... but also another male which I hadn't seen before. He is clearly young, as his feet are unaffected by the virus which all Chaffinches, especially males, get after a couple of years. It seems likely that he's the son of the usual pair.

Both the Chaffinches in the Rose Garden shrubbery came out together. 

They were accompanied by the usual pair of Great Tits -- this is the female ---

... a Coal Tit ...

... a Blue Tit which I didn't get a good picture of ...

... and the male Blackbird, which is slowly becoming more confident and can occasionally be fed on the ground. His mate was also there but didn't come into clear sight.

The Robin by the Henry Moore sculpture was on a log behind the railings. There was just time for one quick shot before if flew up on to the railings and came to my hand for several pine nuts.

A dead and rather rotten fish on the edge of the Serpentine attracted a small crowd of hungry Carrion Crows.

Our one and only Grey Wagtail is only seen occasionally, but today it was hunting along the south shore.

A Pied Wagtail was in the same place a couple of minutes later.

The Grey Heron nests on the island were active. The upper part of the double-decker nest, where I saw a bird sitting a few days ago, was apparently unoccupied, but then a heron suddenly stood up in it and started preening. I'm far from sure but I really think there are eggs in this nest.

The highest nest, just to the east, was the scene of a dispute.

The upper nest at the east end of the island  usually has one heron in it, but I haven't seen any sign of a pair here recently.

A heron was using the Coot nest at the bridge as a fishing platform. The evicted occupant was hanging around crossly in the background, and a Great Crested Grebe was fishing.

Greylag Geese panicked by a loose dog flew over the Serpentine.

The only Mute cygnet to survive on the Serpentine has had a hard life and is now quite tough. It was swaggering around near the Triangle bullying some adults.

I couldn't find the Wigeon on the Round Pond, but there were only a few of the Egyptian Geese she usually feeds with. They may all have been somewhere out of sight.

The gardeners in the Rose Garden can keep roses going almost all the year round. A bush had a good display of yellow roses.

Just the regular customers

A grey, chilly and very ordinary day with most of the regular birds on view but no surprises. A Coal Tit posed grandly in an azalea bush behind the Albert Memorial ...

... and a Blue Tit looked out from a branch. Both regular customers from the Flower Walk, they came to take pine nuts from my hand.

The Robin on the north side of the Flower Walk was lurking in an aucuba bush at the back of the flower bed, but came over when it saw me.

The Robin in the Rose Garden shrubbery is not yet on such familiar terms, but comes out readily for pine nuts thrown on the ground ...

... and the female Chaffinch is getting more confident by the day. She crunched up a pine nut enthusiastically

Her mate waited in a bush for his turn.

There was no sign of the Little Owl in her hole, though I'm sure she was in there, and probably her mate who will have returned from ranging around the area to spend the winter with her. A squirrel perched insolently over the hole.

I think she can deal with cheeky squirrels, but am not sure. In Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin the fearsome Mr Brown is a much bigger Tawny Owl who catches Nutkin, a Red Squirrel smaller than today's invasive Greys.

On the lawn nearby the grazing Wigeon threw a bit of dry grass aside.

Pigeon Eater was in his usual place looking at a bunch of feeding pigeons. He went for one of them but didn't get it. Rushing into a crowd seldom works for him, but he must take every chance he can get.

The Black-Headed Gull at the landing stage was lording it over his territory, with not another gull within a hundred yards.

A Grey Heron fishing from a fallen tree opposite Peter Pan ...

... saw another flying past and chased it away.

A Cormorant washed on its way to perch on the big fallen poplar.

A pair of Moorhens searched for food on the shore of the Lido.

Another Moorhen was amusing itself by climbing on the dead irises in the Italian Garden.

The Egyptian Goose pair in the Rose Garden were in their favourite place on the fountain.

Two Greylag x Canada hybrids cruised by the bridge.

There were five Red-Crested Pochard drakes on the Long Water, among Common Pochards and Tufted Ducks.

More Chaffinches

A pair of Chaffinches appeared in the Dell. There are quite a lot of these in the park, but the only ones I see regularly are the pair in the Rose Garden shrubbery and the pair in the Flower Walk of which the male follows me demanding pine nuts.

There is also a pair seen occasionally at Mount Gate.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good picture of a female Greenfinch near the Henry Moore sculpture, one of a pair that are usually out of sight in the woodland.

I saw a Wren in the same area, climbing down an oak trunk. There are a great many Wrens all along the path from the Italian Garden to the bridge.

This Blue Tit in the Rose Garden has been very shy, but has seen the other small birds being fed and has become confident enough to take a pine nut from the ground.

The Robin was also here, not the one in the shrubbery but one that flies around the rose bushes.

People have started feeding the Rose-Ringed Parakeets here, a shame as they drive the smaller birds away. Perfectly camouflaged in summer, they are absurdly conspicuous when the leaves have fallen.

A Pied Wagtail ran along the water's edge at the Lido, with a brief foray on to the path. You seldom get a sight of what it's catching, but it's probably small insect larvae.

The Grey Herons nesting halfway along the Serpentine island were gathering twigs to repair the nest where they bred successfully last year. Or at least, the heron on the left was working. It chivvied its mate to encourage it to help.

A heron stood on the bowl of the marble fountain at the edge of the Italian Garden, with Cormorants fishing in the water below.

It didn't seem to mind that it was being drizzled with spray from the fountain.

Three Cormorants stood on the roof of a boathouse, far enough apart to avoid a fight but not enough to keep them from growling crossly at each other.

A Great Crested Grebe was fishing around the submerged wire baskets by the bridge, a popular place with all the fishing birds.

A short way along the shore is the place where the Coots gather. It's next to the Triangle car park, so there is always the possibility of food brought by someone in a car who can't be bothered to walk any farther along the shore.

The solitary Moorhen in the Dell was feeding on the lawn. Andrea the Dell gardener tells me that the two young foxes that ate its companions have left, so it may be joined by another in a while.

Two Lesser Black-Backed Gulls passed over a Mute Swan and a Coot. They look very pale, but their apparent colour varies with the way the light falls on them. You can see that the upper one has yellow legs, so it really isn't a Herring Gull.

A Shoveller drake stared up from the Long Water.

There was also a searching glance from the Wigeon at the Round Pond.

No sign of the Little Owl. It looks as if she, and probably her mate with her, have retreated right into their nest tree to keep out of the chilly drizzly windy weather.

A magnolia tree on the edge of the Rose Garden has flower buds. It seems much too early to be starting.