The male Tawny Owl was sitting in the female's usual place at the hole in the side of the nest tree. He has never been seen alone in this place before. Can this be a sign that she is now on her nest?

As usual, he was asleep. He is shorter and rounder than her, but this is exaggerated by the angle of the photograph.

One of the pair of Great Crested Grebes at the Serpentine outflow was attending to their nest of cut reed stems.

It is not at all sure that they will stay on it, as it is absurdly early for a nesting attempt -- but it was this same pair that nested absurdly late last year and brought up one chick which is still on the lake. If they do lay eggs it will be impossible to see them, as there is only one place from which the nest can be seen.

Des McKenzie reported the sighting of the colour-ringed Common Gull I saw on Saturday 5 January (Helgoland 5347344 -- Red A35E). He has found that it was banded at Bremen / Überseehafen, Germany, on 26 June 2010, and has subsequently wintered in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, returning to Überseehafen for the breeding season.

A Nuthatch was perched on a bird feeder in a typically negligent attitude.

Thanks to their hooked, needle-sharp claws, they can walk along the underside of a tree branch and climb down the trunk head first. They simply don't care which way up they are.

There are always some Blackbirds along the north edge of Kensington Gardens, sheltering in the boundary hedge. They probably fly in and out from the gardens on the other side of the Bayswater Road. At the moment a bunch of migrants has added to their number, and there is a group of six at the corner of Queensway. Here one of them is dealing with a large earthworm.