One of the Little Owls made a brief appearance, looking out from a hole in the tree where they nested earlier this year. The small, well camouflaged standing in shadow was hard to see through binoculars and no photograph was possible. The male Tawny Owl was in his usual spot.

The usual Black-Headed Gulls with rings numbered EY09813 and EP24143 were waiting at the edge of the Long Water and I was unable to resist the temptation of throwing them a few bits of biscuit. Another regular at this place has only one leg, but does not seem to be in the slightest inconvenienced, and can do a pinpoint landing on a post or swim around as well as the others. Here it comes in hoping for some more food.

On the Vista, a Magpie was making sure that a dead squirrel didn't go to waste. In a park full of Carrion Crows, Magpies and various gulls, and with a fair number of foxes, any creature that dies disappears quickly. It is all very tidy and economical.

No rabbits have been seen on the Vista for a while. They don't hibernate in winter, but they do become less active and tend to withdraw from the open grassland into the wooded areas. They are more likely to be seen around dawn or sunset.

I went to the Round Pond to visit the Egyptian Geese, but sadly I had run out of biscuits. Here one of the young birds looks at me appealingly, but there was nothing I could do.

As I left, the sun was setting behind the spire of St Mary Abbots church.