A family group of Long-Tailed Tits foraging in the Dell included a family of Goldcrests. Here is a juvenile Goldcrest, which has not yet developed the distinctive yellow stripe on top of its head. Goldcrests belong to a group of small warblers called Kinglets, because the yellow mark looks like a crown; the taxonomic name of the Goldcrest, Regulus regulus, means the same.

Aesop's fable 'The king of the birds' describes a flying contest between birds to elect a king, which was won by the smallest of all, a Wren, because it had perched unseen on the back of an eagle and so could outfly the others. However, this is a mistake for a Goldcrest, which is the smallest bird in Europe and wears a golden crown to prove his kingship.

Here is a moulting Greylag Goose which has lost almost all its flight feathers; in the picture one of its last tertials is about to fall off. But those that moult first get their new feathers first.

The visitors to the lake include this unusual Canada-Greylag hybrid with an almost completely Canada appearance but the pink feet of a Greylag. All the other hybrids have grey feet, unlike those of either of their parents -- Canadas have black feet -- but the genetic lottery throws up strange combinations.

Here a Grey Heron hunches up against the brisk wind ruffling its feathers.