The day started dry, with a gratifying sight of the female Little Owl in her hole near the Albert Memorial.

But soon it started to drizzle, and then to rain. Tufted Ducks don't mind that.

Cormorants were fishing below the Italian Garden, and still finding quite a lot of fair-sized perch.

A Herring Gull was drinking from the rapids in the Diana fountain, which was almost deserted because of the weather. They like the fast flowing water, and there are usually several here when the place is not crowded.

A Carrion Crow was finishing off one of the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull's victims. Another Lesser Black-Back was envious, and could easily have knocked the crow out of the way, but for some reason it hesitated and flew away. Not all gulls are as assertive as our two pigeon killers.

A female Pied Wagtail trotted up the shore of the Serpentine near the Winter Wasteland, which wasn't doing much business on its first Saturday.

But the banal pop music drifting from the huge enclosure annoyed a Robin in the Rose Garden, which sang back at it.

In the darkness under the tree there was a male Blackbird, which looked slightly odd so I photographed it. Lightening the picture shows that it has white flecks around its eye, the smallest sign of the tendency to leucism that often affects Blackbirds.

The female near the Italian Garden has a mostly white face, and there have been pied Blackbirds in the park that look like little Magpies. Occasionally completely white Blackbirds are seen. They are not albinos, and have normal dark eyes and yellow bills.

A Dunnock was poking around in one of the red-stemmed dogwood bushes near the Lido.

There have been Dunnocks here for years, but they are not seen when there are people on what is normally a busy path.

The same is true of the Wrens at the southwest corner of the bridge.

Long-Tailed Tits, passing high through the trees, are completely indifferent to people.

It was too wet to go to St James's Park to see the Black Swans, so here is a bit of video from yesterday. This is 'our' swan's new friend, seen in St James's Park, advancing with 'our' swan following. We now think that 'our' swan is female, and that this is her prospective boyfriend. He is bigger than her. Note the rather dull colour of his eye, which has still not developed the bright red colour of an adult.