It was another very windy day. A Jackdaw shelled a peanut efficiently on a branch in the leaf yard as leaves whipped around.

The small birds held firmly on to their twigs. Great Tits have very strong feet, as you notice when they land on your finger and grip it like a tiny Mole wrench.

Both they and Nuthatches can walk along the underside of a branch without the slightest trouble.

Chaffinches eat the pips out of rowan berries and discard the pulp.

Usually at this time of year the rowan trees on Buck Hill are full of Mistle Thrushes, but there seem to be very few this year. There was a Song Thrush, perfectly camouflaged in the leaf litter.

A half marathon race was going on in Hyde Park. A Pied Wagtail ignored the human runners and sprinted about on the grass beside the Serpentine.

A Carrion Crow extracted seeds from the pod of an iris planted beside the Diana fountain.

The young Lesser Black-Backed Gull that is the offspring of the pigeon-killer stood in its parents' territory while the father chased off a couple of Herring Gulls. The parents tolerate its presence but no longer feed it.

The Great Crested Grebes from the east end of island are still sporadically feeding their teenagers, though these are now almost independent.

One of the adults from the other end of the island was tousled by the wind. It's already almost in plain winter plumage.

There were 14 Cormorants in a row at Peter Pan.

Blondie and her mate were at the east end of the Serpentine, their usual spot and only a few yards from the place where Blondie was hatched. She is a remarkably sedentary bird. She flew to the Round Pond once several years ago, didn't like it, and came back the following day.

The air ambulance made a neat landing in the gusts on Buck Hill.

As I was going home I saw a father and son staring at the big gold statue of Prince Albert on the memorial.
Son: 'Who's that, Daddy?'
Father: 'Jesus.'