The male Tawny Owl is still troubled by flies, and was restless on his perch on top of the nest tree. Here he has a good shake ...

... and a scratch to get rid of them.

There are still a lot of insects around, evidently because of the mild weather. The area around the Italian Garden is full of ladybirds, most of them the proper red kind rather than the invading harelequin ladybirds. They used to have a nest in the public convenience behind the Italian Garden, but this was destroyed in the redecoration of the place, so they must have found somewhere else.

The Little Owl was in the chestnut tree next to his nest tree, and there were no flies on him. As an insect-eating bird, he regards them as a snack rather than a pest.

This is a young Wood Piegon eating holly berries. It has not yet developed the white neck ring of an adult, but it does have the typical white wing bars. This one's eyes are mid brown, changing between juvenile dark brown and the rather odd pale grey of an adult. It is easy to mistake a young Wood Pigeon for a Stock Dove until it spreads its wings.

There were two Song Thrushes feeding in the yew bush north of Peter Pan, probably the pair that nests in the leaf yard just the other side of the statue. This one is the female, though I only know this because her mate was singing quietly to himself in the middle of an adjacent holly tree. The birds don't spend long in the yew: they dive in, grab a few berries, and go to perch in another tree.

There was a Blackbird in the yew with a white patch on her neck which made her look rather like a Ring Ouzel. This beautiful picture was taken by Eleanor Cogger.

A few months ago Andy Sunters saw what he thought might have been a Ring Ouzel between the Diana fountain and the bridge, though no one was able to find it again. It might have been the same bird.

The eight young Egyptian Geese at the Round Pond were still in good order, resting on the edge in the warm sunshine.

Several of the plane trees on the path between the Physical Enerby statue and the Speke obelisk are heavily infested with fungus. They are quite old trees and perhaps no longer in the best of health. I think this fungus is Pholiota squarrosa again, though it is less yellow than the one I photographed a few days ago near the Serpentine bridge.