The winter wind is still icy, but spring is winning.

One of the Carrion Crows on Buck Hill gave me a pathetic look. It would have got a peanut anyway.

The white-faced Blackbird also looked snowbound as she begged for some sultanas.

But in fact the Blackbirds were doing all right, as the ground was not frozen under the light snow cover. One turned over a leaf and found a larva underneath.

The Redwings on the Parade Ground were foraging busily.

A Pied Wagtail hunted in a patch of gravel under a tree.

Both the Nuthatches in the leaf yard came down to be fed.

As usual, this Coal Tit hung back, and it was quite hard to give it a chance to get a pine nut off the railings.

Two Long-Tailed Tits were at a feeder in the Dell.

The Rose-Ringed Parakeets, most conspicuous in winter, will soon be blending into the new leaves.

More young leaves were coming out behind a pair of Jackdaws.

The brisk wind raised choppy waves on the lake, and a pair of Gadwalls were bouncing up and down.

The white Mallard and his companions threaded their way past some Mute Swans in the lee of the Dell restaurant balcony.

The pair of Great Crested Grebes here have now lost the rafts on which they have often tried to nest, always unsuccessfully.

It would be good if this finally drove them to nest in the reed bed. But I think that grebes that don't live in reedy areas haven't grasped the idea that reeds give good shelter and the stems make strong nests.

A Lesser Black-Backed Gull in the middle of a jostling crowd of Coots and Greylag Geese shouted irritably.

A young Herring Gull was playing with a chicken bone.

Virginia found one with a much better toy, a shiny fork from the Lido restaurant.

There was a mysterious Japanese inscription in the snow. It was preceded by '2018', so it's probably not too exciting.