A Danish visitor

There was a Black-Headed Gull from Denmark on the edge of the Serpentine, with a metal ring 6J-1833 and a colour ring White V17U. I've reported it on the Euring recording scheme. Since it's an adult it may have a bit of a history.

Pigeon Eater looked  down imperiously from his place on the restaurant roof.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was leaning against a twig, which sank a long way into her feathers. Inside their thick plumage owls are thin birds.

The male Chaffinch in the Rose Garden shrubbery waited in a bush.

A Coal Tit flitted overhead and paused for a second on a branch of a red-leafed cherry tree. I've seen Coal Tits in this tree before and I think they nest in it.

A Robin in the Flower Walk sang loudly ...

... at the next one along the path, the Robin that lives inside the yew hedge. Secure in its sheltered home, it didn't bother to reply.

The crowd of Cormorants at the Serpentine island has spread on to the boats. I'm glad I don't have to clean these.

A pale young Cormorant dried its wings across the Long Water from Peter Pan.

A Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine looked at the camera with mild interest.

Another dashed off in a panic when a rival deliberately surfaced under it.

The Black Swan at the Round Pond doesn't come ashore much, because he attracts too much attention from the humans.

The fox in the willow was in a better place, but not for long. It gave a tremendous yawn ...

... turned round, and settled down to sleep.

A headless horseman rode along the Serpentine Road. Normal for the time of year, I suppose.

Another seasonal touch: there were some strange-looking Elfin Saddle fungi, Helvella crispa, under the sweet chestnut trees across the lake.

Magpie fight

A very ordinary day was enlivened by two Magpies brawling at the Triangle. It was an even contest, and one that had been knocked down ...

... jumped up ...

... and floored the other.

It wasn't a serious fight, and afterwards they went off peacefully together.

It's harder for the small birds. The life of a Robin is a constant state of alert, ticking at an intruder and glancing around for a possible threat. Even when they're singing so beautifully they're defending their territory.

Although the day was quite mild, the Little Owl at the Round Pond didn't feel like coming out of her hole.

A Jackdaw perched beside her on the dead tree.

The Chaffinch in the Rose Garden has started following me around, like the very persistent one that keeps turning up all over Kensington Gardens.

There were plenty of people outside at the Lido restaurant, and the Starlings had turned up in force to raid the tables.

Pigeon Eater was in his place on the roof of the Dell restaurant, with no sign of his pale rival.

This young Grey Heron is now usually seen fishing beside the boathouse. It's the one whose sister had a broken leg and was taken to the Swan Sanctuary to be fixed up. A bizarre regulation prevents them from being returned.

The young Great Crested Grebes on the Long Water were still remorselessly chasing their parents ...

... while the two pairs on the Serpentine have nothing to do but rest. This is the western pair which are farther into winter plumage.

It seems a shame that grebes can't call on their relatives to help them with child care, as Long-Tailed Tits and Canada Geese do.

The Long Water is now crowded with Cormorants hoovering up this year's young fish. Almost every suitable suitable perch has one on it. They will stay until some time in the winter when they've caught so many of the fish that they are reaching the point of diminishing returns.

On the Serpentine island they've run out of posts to stand on and are using dead branches on a tree at the west end.

The Mute Swans were at the Vista waiting for someone to come past with food for them. They seldom have long to wait. This is actually quite beneficial because it keeps them on the Long Water most of the time instead of swaggering around the Serpentine beating up the other swans.

At the end of the waterfront the local Moorhen was amusing itself by climbing around in a bush.

The tree-climbing fox was curled up comfortably 10 feet above the ground on the willow at the east end of the Serpentine.

The adaptation of chillis

The Rose Garden is crowded with Robins, and this one singing in a rose bush had rivals to left and right.

It came down for a performance fee of several pine nuts.

The Chaffinch also arrived for his daily offering.

We've seen this pure white Feral Pigeon here before.

At Mount Gate it was a surprise to find a Jay and a Robin waiting side by side on the railings.

You tend to think of Great Tits as fairly sedentary: you meet the same ones every day in the same places. But this one at the Lido, where I've never fed a Great Tit before, evidently knew me from elsewhere, and called from a bush and came to my hand.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was on one of her usual perches. The leaves are going to fall from the horse chestnut tree soon, and then sadly we'll see less of her when she has no cover and spends the day in her hole.

You can tell that the Peregrines are away from the tower by the sight of Carrion Crows playing around the aerials.

Again there was an adult Grey Heron in the newest nest on the island, probably a parent of the three young ones which have now left the nest for good to cope with the challenge of independence.

Someone had thrown a chilli to a Black-Headed Gull on the Serpentine, probably intending to give it a cruel surprise. But chillis don't taste hot to birds, only to mammals. This is a nifty bit of evolution. The chilli seeds can pass through a bird's quick digestive system undamaged and germinate when the bird drops them at a distance, spreading the plant. The more thorough digestion of a mammal would damage the seeds and make them infertile. So to a bird a ripe chilli is a palatable sweet red fruit. To a mammal, which can't even see red, it's a grey thing with a horrible taste and is left uneaten.

(However, tomato seeds, which are larger, seem to survive the human gut sometimes, as shown by the tomato plants that come up at sewage farms.)

A pair of Great Crested Grebes rested side by side on the Serpentine, looking like comfy bedroom slippers.

But it's still constant action on the Long Water, with one young grebe chasing each parent.

At least the young ones are beginning to try to fish by themselves, probably still with little success.

Someone at the Vista had been trying to feed bits of apple to the Mute Swan family, who didn't like them. But a Moorhen happily seized a chunk and hurried off to eat it under a bush.

A Cormorant flew up the Long Water.

Some fragile little mushrooms had come up in the leaf litter under an old chestnut tree. They are of the coprinoid family, mushrooms which spread their spores by dissolving into a goo. There are many species, a lot of them looking much like this. Mario explained to me that they used to be assigned to the genus Coprinus, but it was discovered that they weren't all closely related and now they have been split into Coprinus, Coprinellus, Coprinopsis and Parasola, the last of which includes P. plicatilis, the Little Japanese Umbrella mushroom often seen in the park.

The enormous crane used to clean the windows on the ugly block of flats pompously called One Hyde Park really does look rather like a huge version of the bird it is named after.

A drizzly day

It was a dark day of persistent drizzle, and the Little Owl at the Round Pond was staying in her hole.

The small birds were hungry. The Robin in the middle of the Rose Garden ...

... and the male Chaffinch turned up for their pine nuts ...

... and the bold male Great Tit followed me out to the Dell, collecting several on the way

A Blackbird perched on a branch in the Dell. This is a young male, probably an offspring of the pair who have been in residence for several years.

A handsome speckled grey Feral Pigeon perched on the balustrade of the dam at the east end of the Serpentine.

A Magpie strolled through fallen horse chestnut leaves.

A Carrion Crow was enjoying the remains of a waffle spread with Nutella.

Pigeon Eater's mate was trying her luck at the tables in the Dell restaurant.

A Herring Gull did the worm dance and got a worm.

A Black-Headed Gull had a brisk wash and flap.

A Grey Heron landed under the big Dawn Redwood in the Dell.

One of the young Great Crested Grebes on the Long Water was under the Italian Garden while its father fished.

The other could be heard pestering its mother at the other end of the lake.

A Moorhen rummaged through the fallen leaves at the edge of the Serpentine, looking for insects underneath.

A smart Shoveller drake cruised past the boat hire platform. 

There was a clump of brown mushrooms which I don't think I've seen before behind the Albert Memorial. I've asked Mario about them. Later: he says it's just Honey Fungus. But it's strangely dark.

There used to be a small ornamental conifer on the lawn in the Rose Garden, but it died. A tracked stump grinder was pulverising the remains. The machine is remote controlled by radio. When it had finished it followed its minder out like a big yellow dog and obediently climbed on to a trailer to be taken away.