A Great Tit flew into one of the rowan trees on Buck Hill and started busily pecking at something. You might have expected that it was taking the outside off a rowan berry to eat the seeds. But no, it was holding a brown leaf against a twig with both feet and attacking the surface.

Evidently the leaf was infested with insect larvae, and there were clearly several of them, because the tit reduced the leaf to shreds in several places. It was too large to be a rowan leaf, so the tit must have brought it in from another tree to work on it.

The Little Grebe appeared again today, cruising across the Long Water 50 yards from the Italian Garden.

Little Grebes work their way up the sides of lakes, eating small fish and invertebrates found on plant stems. When they get to the end of a productive patch they cross the lake briskly in a straight line to work along the other side.

The Cormorants are still taking fish from the wire baskets near the bridge.

But they are less active here than they were, and also fewer Great Crested Grebes were visiting the baskets. It is likely that the Cormorants have pretty nearly emptied the baskets of fish of a worthwhile size.

This is a first-winter male Blackbird, still with a dark bill and slightly brownish wings, and with only a trace of the yellow eye ring that it will have as a full adult.

Every winter a fair number of Blackbirds migrate from northern Europe and turn up in the park, and these arrivals include a lot of immature birds. Probably this is one of them.

The Tawny Owls were in their usual place in the beech tree, slightly better placed for pictures than they have been recently. The female looked quizzically at me with one eye.

The male became quite interested when I got my feet tangled in the brambles and fell over with a loud crash.

The female Little Owl was briefly visible scurrying into shelter as humans approached her tree.