Robins everywhere

One of the Magpies at the Triangle returned to the nest it used in the spring. But it was no longer interested in it as a nest: it's full of insects which the bird picked out.

There were Robins everywhere. This one was singing in a bush in the Rose Garden. I was lucky to get a momentary interval in the hideous Christmas songs blasting out from the loudspeakers in the Winter Wasteland.

It was answered by one on the edge of the garden.

The Robin by the Henry Moore sculpture waited for me to put pine nuts on the railings.

Another was singing high in a holly tree by the bridge.

Although it was very cold, the sunshine brought the male Little Owl at the Round Pond out on a branch of the dead tree.

He would have had to go in by the hole at the back, as there was a Jackdaw at the upper entrance which he generally uses. I don't think Jackdaws bother Little Owls particularly, although the other corvids attack them.

The Grey Wagtail was in its favourite place under a bush at the end of the Lido restaurant terrace.

Immediately after I took this picture it was bounced by the pair of Pied Wagtails which were flying up and down the edge of the lake. The female caught yet another unidentifiable larva -- it looks as if half of it has already been eaten.

Readers sometimes say that they hardly ever see a Jay in the park. If you feed them you see a lot. This is a picture by Julia, who does feed them.

Viewers of my YouTube channel often ask me whether the famous pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull is still around. Yes, he is, seen today eating his latest kill in the usual place by the Dell restaurant. Gulls can live to over 30, so he's still in his prime.

A Common Gull stood on the old cast-iron water level indicator on the opposite side of the lake.

Although there was a frost last night, the Long Water hadn't frozen yet. Tonight is colder and it probably will. But the Great Crested Grebe family from the bridge were still in place today. The male was by the reed bed opposite Peter Pan, being harassed by two Black-Headed Gulls that wanted to grab any fish he caught.

One of the young ones could be seen resting in the middle of the water.

However, there were no grebes on the Serpentine that I could see. That means that the youngest one was already capable of flying, and the family have flown up the river. There are grebes from Chiswick all the way upstream.

A Coot was reclining on the pavement in the Italian Garden. I thought it might have an injured leg, but when I approached it got up and walked away quite normally, so it was just having a rest.

A pair of Egyptian Geese at the Serpentine outflow stood one up, one down, nattering to each other.

A fox has dug an earth under the gum tree by the bandstand lavatories in Hyde Park. The gardeners will not be pleased.

Theodore reports seeing the Peregrine pair in the Cromwell Road this afternoon. I saw a Peregrine on the Knightsbridge Barracks at 12.30. So it seems that there really are two pairs, unless the one in the park made a sudden dash.