A Christmas Robin

It wouldn't be Christmas without a Robin. This one came out to be fed at Mount Gate ...

... followed by a Great Tit ...

... a Blue Tit ...

... and a Coal Tit.

A pair of Magpies preened together in a tree beside the Long Water. One briefly preened its mate, a sign of affection.

A Jay on the south shore of the Serpentine expected a peanut. This isn't a usual place to see them.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was visible, but didn't want to come out on a dank dark day with persistent light drizzle.

A Grey Heron could just be seen in the occupied nest.

Its mate stood on a post below. It has a distinct red tinge to its bill, a sign of being in breeding condition ...

... but it isn't nearly as bright as the heron that is claiming this very undersized nest. It had just knocked another heron off the nest, and was nodding its head vigorously to show that it owned the site. However, its mate from last year hasn't turned up.

A first-year heron, too young for these shenanigans, was fishing from the landing stage on the other side of the lake.

Cormorants were fishing under the Italian Garden, but catching very little. A few weeks ago they were absolutely hauling up fish here. However, there will always be enough for the patient and skilled herons, so they can bring up their chicks properly.

The male Great Crested Grebe of the family from the east end of the island was calling his mate and young one, though these were out of sight from where I was.

Someone feeding the birds at the Vista had attracted three Mallards, two Pochards, a Gadwall, a Tufted Duck, two Coots, a Moorhen and the inevitable Black-Headed Gulls.

An idiot has managed to ram his car into the parapet of the Serpentine bridge, bringing down twenty feet of balustrade and some larger stones in the wall. Drivers often go off the outside of the sharp Z bend at the north end of the bridge, but this one had somehow managed to hit it on the inside of the curve, and very hard too. There was no sign of the car either on the bridge or on the path below where the stones had fallen.

Incidentally, there is a car in the lake, which ran in from the slope of the Triangle car park in the 1940s and has never been retrieved.