The Bearded Tits were still in the reed bed near the Diana memorial fountain, clinging tenaciously to the reed stems as they flailed in the sharp east wind. They were attended by a small crowd of photographers, of whom they took not the slightest notice.

It appears that they have been in this place since early December, but two reports by the person who saw them failed to get through. So I have been walking past them for a month without seeing them, in spite of sometimes wondering what was calling from the reeds and looking blindly past these little reed-coloured birds. Must try harder.

Some of the photographers went off to see the Tawny Owls, but were disappointed. The female is on her eggs, and the male had probably taken shelter from the wind in the capacious interior of their hollow tree.

The hybrid duck was on the Long Water near the Italian Garden.

I think, from looking carefully at its feather patterns, that this is the same one I photographed earlier, but today it had raised the slightest hint of a tuft at the back of its head; when I saw it earlier the back of its head was completely round. This would confirm that it is a Pochard--Tufted cross. But you can never be sure with hybrid ducks, whose appearance is very variable.

Here, for comparison, is a female Tufted Duck with the same Scaup-like white area on the face behind the bill, a feature that appears occasionally in pure-bred Tufted Ducks. But she has a proper tuft, and her eyes are dark orange rather than brown like those of the hybrid, which resemble those of a female Pochard. The relative sizes of these two pictures are about right.

There are three (probably) pure-bred Canada Geese on the lake with white-speckled heads, and I have published pictures of them. Here is a Greylag showing the same tendency; it also has a white band behind its bill -- not infrequent in Greylags -- and white eye rings rather than the normal pale orange. It is smaller than average, and has paler pink feet. I think it is just a variant rather than anything exotic.