The first Common Gull has returned to spend the winter in the park. It was on one of the posts at Peter Pan.

A young Herring Gull at the Lido played with a round bit of stick. They love things that roll down the slope at the edge of the lake.

A Carrion Crow wanted the stick, for no reason except that the gull had it. As soon as the gull trotted off, the crow grabbed its prize and bore it off to the grassy bank at the back of the swimming area.

It soon tired of it, because adult crows don't play with toys in the same way as young gulls. But they do enjoy chasing gulls, and this picture of the same bird chasing a Black-Headed Gull was taken a few minutes later.

There was a mob of crows on the Vista, about sixty in all. They seldom came here until people started feeding the Rose-Ringed Parakeets, when spilt food attracted both crows and Feral Pigeons. Notices forbidding feeding have had some effect, and there are now fewer people and fewer parakeets, but the crows and pigeons remain.

A Magpie looked down from a holly tree near the bridge ...

... and a Great Tit ate a seed on a twig.

A Wren looked for insects in the rotten wood of the dead tree.

A Starling waited for scraps at the Lido restaurant.

A young Wood Pigeon, still with dark eyes and no white collar, came for a drink at the top of the Dell waterfall ...

... and the Grey Wagtail used a rock at the bottom as a hunting station.

It was the day for the monthly bird count for the BTO, and the male Peregrine obligingly turned up to be counted.

The two young Great Crested Grebes from the Serpentine island were having a quiet moment. They are still being fed, but have reached the stage where they accompany their parents diving for fish rather than just begging for food.

The patch of plumbago in the Rose Garden is wilted, but it still attracted a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee ...

... and a Common Carder.