A very happy New Year to all readers. A pity, though, that the year began with a grandly unpleasant day of heavy rain and gusty wind. After two hours I was saturated and fled home.

It was business as usual for the birds. Here a Cormorant fishing industriously in the choppy water near the bridge stares at me with its innocent blue eyes.

The small birds in the leaf yard were remarkably hungry and flew out in mobs to be fed. At some times I had three on my hand at once and more queuing up my arm.

Some birds seemed to be anticipating the coming of spring. This Jay in the leaf yard was raising his crest uttering that peculiar mixture of squawks and clattering that for Jays is song.

There was no sign of a potential mate in the shrubbery.

These Feral Pigeons have got completely carried away.

Nesting in buildings and living on scraps, they are probably fairly independent of the seasons.

This Great Crested Grebe is already in full breeding plumage.

His big crest and dark colouring suggests that he is quite an old bird, though a lot of it may be down to individual variation. He was at the east end of the Serpentine, where a pair nested last year, but I have compared pictures and he is not one of them. Nor is he the very dark grebe who nested under the willow tree near the bridge, as this one had an almost completely dark face. I don't think I've seen him before.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual place on the nest tree, a little rain-spattered but impassive.