A difficult day for pictures. I couldn't find the Kingfisher, and nor could anyone else I spoke to. The Goldeneye appeared briefly in the morning ...

... but when I went back later he had disappeared too. And the female Peregrine kept going to the back of the ledge, out of sight. I think she had a pigeon there and was going back to eat a bit more.

There are still some Cormorants on the Long Water, but they are only catching fish occasionally. In the autumn almost every dive into the old water filter below the Italian Garden would have yielded a fish, but this Cormorant took a quarter of an hour to get one.

Tufted Ducks and a Common Pochard dived next to each other in the shallow water in front of Peter Pan.

There were Grey Herons in two nests on the island -- this is the second one from the top. Although six nests have been occupied at times, I don't think that means that there are six pairs of birds. Some of them are shifting around looking for the best spot to claim. In previous years there has been a long period of shilly-shallying before they get down to breeding.

A young Herring Gull dived into the lake in a place where the water was several feet deep and came up with a small crayfish claw, presumably discarded by some other bird. It was too small to be worth eating, but the gull played with it for a while. Their ability to spot submerged objects from the air is remarkable.

A Carrion Crow bathed in the Serpentine.

Someone had given this crow a macadamia nut, a luxurious treat which it savoured carefully.

A Jay had to be content with a common peanut.

Magpies jostled for position at a small ants' nest where there was only one good place to find ants.

The usual Blue Tit near the Italian Garden followed me along the path, getting three pine nuts on the way.

Coal Tits often sing in winter, and several could be heard in spite of the cold weather. This one was in a yew tree near the Henry Moore sculpture.

A Goldcrest appeared in the yew in the leaf yard.

The usual fox was resting in the hollow tree trunk opposite Peter Pan.