A hint of sunlight

No more snow has fallen, and there was even a hint of sunlight.

Carrion Crows pecked at some bits of bread embedded in the ice on the Long Water. They are hungry, as the frozen ground makes it hard to get worms.

A Jay waited on an ivy-covered tree to fly down and grab a peanut from my hand.

Jackdaws, although very precise fliers, haven't got this trick and have to be fed on the ground where crows tend to bash them out of the way.

Great Tits are coming out everywhere in Kensington Gardens to be fed.

The Robin which was so hard to photograph in the snow yesterday came out obligingly on the corkscrew hazel in the Flower Walk, but by now the snow had fallen off.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was right at the back of the hole, and all you could see was the top of his head.

A Grey Heron stood in the snow on top of the Henry Moore sculpture.

Some Cormorants have returned. There were four on the posts at the bridge ...

... and another was fishing at the edge of the ice on the Long Water.

Not all the Great Crested Grebes have left. One was fishing at the Serpentine outflow.

A pair of Mute Swans had broken their way through the thin ice at the edge of the lake to reach the gravel strip. But they didn't find anything to their liking there, and when I went past later they had returned to the Serpentine.

At the Italian Garden the swan situation is still uncertain. The rejected female had returned ...

... but was in a different pool from the male ...

... while the dominant female was on the lake below, preening alongside a Cormorant.

A stupid person with a dog was doing his best to make the rejected female even more miserable.

The Black Swan was on the Round Pond cruising serenely in the late afternoon light.

Pochards frozen off the Long Water regrouped at the Serpentine island.