The female Tawny Owl has found a new branch to spend the day on, in the beech tree behind their nest tree. She is easily visible here, and when I visited she was awake and shifting around to get herself comfortable.

Her mate remains in his usual place on the top of the broken trunk of the nest tree.

The Great Crested Grebes that I photographed displaying to each other on Sunday have got slightly carried away by their enthusiasm, and were waving leaves at each other.

This is something that they would normally do only when seriously intending to nest. But they were in shallow water and could pick up leaves easily, and a gesture of affection is always worth while. The offerings that birds give their mates raise the question of whether birds can actually think in terms of symbols. When a grebe waves nesting materials at his mate, does he actually consider that this represents nesting activity? When a Robin offers food to his mate, is he aware that this symbolises his willingness to feed her when she is sitting on their eggs? But this is probably an overestimation of their capacity for thought. These rituals are hard wired into their behaviour.

The ground is frozen and the Blackbirds can't pull out worms, though they can still find small creatures in the leaf litter under the bushes. They are noticeably hungrier, and even the migrant Blackbirds, which are completely wild and not accustomed to being fed, will run to take a piece of food thrown for them. Here one of the resident birds near the Peter Pan statue takes a large piece of cheese ...

... while her mate stares eagerly from a bush waiting for his turn.

Returning to the subject of birds' binocular vision, note that this is a straight-on look with both eyes, and the tip of the bird's beak is exactly between its eyes as it stares straight at the camera. This view would be the last thing a worm sees before the pitiless beak comes down to grab it.