Two very small birds

A Goldcrest bustled about in a yew tree near Peter Pan. They prefer yews to all other trees, as they can hide safely in their dense evergreen cover.

On the other side of the path a Wren was hopping around in a dogwood bush.

Now that the noisy Winter Wasteland has gone away the Robins in the Rose Garden no longer need to shout.

The Parade Ground is finally empty at the south end, but there's no sign of any Redwings moving in yet. Conehead 54 says that their numbers are well down this year. The only small birds I could find were some very distant Pied Wagtails.

A Carrion Crow enjoyed a splash in the pool at the top of the Dell waterfall.

This Lesser Black-Backed Gull on the Serpentine shore is in its second winter, with a spreading patch of plain dark grey replacing its speckled juvenile plumage. They take four years to look completely adult, a long time by bird standards but they are also long-lived, exceeding 30 in favourable conditions.

Two Shoveller drakes cruised past the Serpentine island. Shovellers much prefer the Long Water, which is quieter, but they haven't yet settled back after it froze solid. Others went up to the Round Pond.

Male Egyptian Geese have a very dull time while their mates are nesting, as they only see them for a brief period in the evening when the females leave the eggs and come down for a drink and a quick feed. But it must be a serious ordeal for the females, as they can't be getting nearly enough to eat during the 28 to 30 day incubation time, and must be perilously thin when they bring down their goslings. The male from the Henry Moore sculpture was wandering aimlessly along the gravel strip ...

... and then went up on to the lawn, where he joined the elderly Grey Heron. It's a slight surprise to see that this aged bird is still getting the pink flush of his breeding array ...

... though he's not nearly as bright as the widowed heron on the island.

I couldn't see any activity on the nest, but that's normal in a deep nest where the sitting bird is hidden. You just have to wait and see what happens.

A heron near the bridge seemed indignant at being photographed ...

... and the one on the Long Water was still peering into the brambles in exactly the same place as when I photographed it three days ago.

A Great Crested Grebe was calling near the Vista ...

... and another, farther up the lake, heard and came towards it.

I thought they were the pair at the bridge until I looked more carefully at the first picture, which shows that it's a male, as you can tell from its broad top crest. And so clearly was the one responding, so the call was a territorial challenge.

But the two by the island were a pair, and were fishing together companionably.

A Moorhen looked for small edible creatures in the cut reeds below the Italian Garden.

Cutting the reeds down every few years encourages them to grow back thicker, but it also releases a feeding ground for fishing birds such as herons and omnivores like Moorhens.

The daffodils bleached by having a ramp laid over them are becoming greener and growing noticeably, so there's a good change of them managing to flower.