Bad light didn't stop play

It was dark and misty, no kind of a day for photography. The small birds were hungrier than ever. Ten Great Tits in a bush in the Flower Walk were only part of the mob that emerged.

The Robin at Peter Pan provided a moment of colour when it came out for a pine nut.

But the Rose Garden shrubbery was much quieter than usual, and the only regular to appear was the male Chaffinch.

Two Wood Pigeons were browsing on the pansies in the winter border. They were mostly eating the leaves, though the flowers also look a bit chewed.

Pigeon Eater asserted his claim to his territory by calling, and chased off other big gulls. He doesn't pay any attention to the small Black-Headed Gulls, which he doesn't see as rivals.

The Grey Heron in the upper part of the double-decker nest on the island is definitely sitting. As I approached I saw it stand up, turn round, and settle down again. When it's resting on the eggs you wouldn't think there was a large heron in this quite small nest ...

... but just as I left it got up again for a few seconds. By this time I was in the wrong place for an unobstructed photograph.

The upper nest at the east end is also constantly occupied, and today there was a pair here. However, there is no sign of sitting, so it looks as if they are just claiming the site.

It's the same with this nest between the two: always a heron in it, but always standing up. Unlike the other two nests this one has never been the site of successful breeding, but there's always a first time.

The Great Crested Grebe on the left is the father of the other one. They were fishing together by the boathouses, under the platform for charging the electric boats. You now have to look closely to tell a teenager from an adult.

A Cormorant was fishing inside the boathouse, a good place as the shade makes fish feel safe and they tend to collect.

This young Cormorant under the Italian Garden looks as if it was standing on water, but in fact it's on the barely submerged iron grating of the old water filter.

I've never understood what the water filter is actually for. The marble fountain above it was made to distribute water from the borehole into the lake, and this water is clean and doesn't need filtration. But the filter was certainly a working part of the old steam-powered fountain system.

The land drain on the south side of the Vista collapsed years ago and the park management have given up hope of repairing it. Instead, they have fenced off the swamp where the water comes out of the break and declared that they are 'creating a marshland area'. Now the drain on the north side seems to be failing too, and water is gushing out of the pavement. This interested a Coot hoping that the turbulence would bring up edible creatures from the bottom ...

... and a Moorhen looking for things being swept over the edge.

The Wigeon, missing from the Round Pond yesterday, was back in her usual place today browsing happily on the well kept grass.

However, I haven't seen the Black Swan for several days. He came down from the Round Pond to the Serpentine and has now vanished. Could he possibly have known about the Black Swans in St James's Park and gone to join them? He was young when he arrived and I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he didn't know his way around the London parks.

A paperbush in the Dell is putting out its odd off-white fragrant flowers. The bark of these plants was used in Japan to make high-quality paper for banknotes, but now I suppose they're plastic like everyone else's.

By half-past two it was really too dark to take pictures, but as I went home I got a lucky final shot of the Robin at Mount Gate.