The Peregrine was back on the tower of the Household Cavalry barracks.

Before I could get any nearer it flew off and headed across the lake.

I've seen this bird flying out from the tower several times, and it has always gone in the same direction, on a course that would take it to the tower of the Metropole Hilton hotel in the Edgware Road. I think it's the same Peregrine, or to be more exact one of the same pair, and it just comes to the park occasionally for a change.

Otherwise it was an ordinary dark winter day with nothing unusual to see. The crowd outside the funfair was matched by a milling throng of Black-Headed Gulls hoping to win some scraps from their snacks.

On the shore nearby, the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull was having a drink.

A Pied Wagtail bathed on the edge of the lake.

A Shoveller drake preened.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits flew through the bare trees.

The white-faced Blackbird appeared for her usual treat of sultanas.

A Robin was foraging in a patch of dead leaves.

And a Wren appeared in a flower bed in the Rose Garden.

I found just one Little Owl, the male of the pair at the leaf yard in his usual horse chestnut tree near the Queen's Temple.

However, after dark Tom and his friend Barry were going home past the Diana fountain, and heard and saw a pair of Little Owls in a tall tree beside the path, on the side of the enclosure towards the Lido. No one has seen a Little Owl near here before, and it seems likely that they are a new pair.

A very happy Christmas to all readers, and thank you for sticking with the blog during the uneventful days of winter.