How many Long-Tailed Tits?

A Long-Tailed Tit perched for a moment in a tree near the Round Pond.

Later there were some going through a dead tree by Peter Pan. When you see them twice you never know whether it's the same flock or a different one, and I have no idea how many of these fast moving winter feeding flocks of Long-Tailed Tits there are in the park.

The usual Robin was also visible at Peter Pan. It's now a regular customer.

Ahmet Amerikali got a good shot of a Blue Tit near the Henry Moore sculpture.

I could only find the Little Owl at the Round Pond at the back of her hole. It's practically the same picture every time ...

... so here's a much better one taken a few days ago by Tom.

A Carrion Crow drank from the marble fountain on the edge of the Italian Garden. Just along the parapet an Egyptian Goose was also drinking rainwater from an urn.

On the pavement below a Pied Wagtail crossed the boundary between Paddington Parish and the parish of St George's Hanover Square.

The former administrative parish of St George's extends in a straggling line a long way west of the church itself, which is a mile and a half away off Regent Street. So does the parish of St Margaret's Westminster next to Westminster Abbey. The boundary markers in the park for this parish are marked SMW or WSM.

Pigeon Eater was in a better mood than yesterday, finishing off a Feral Pigeon in the water at his usual hunting ground by the Dell restaurant.

A Grey Heron was about to touch in a treetop on the island. Herons are much lighter than they look, typically about three and a half pounds, and can land on quite thin twigs without breaking them. Note also the very large alula -- the movable tuft of feathers on its thumb which acts as an aerodynamic slot smoothing the passage of air over the wing and greatly helps low speed flight.

Ahmet got two good pictures of fishing birds with their catch: a Great Crested Grebe on the Serpentine ...

... and a Cormorant with a big perch under the Italian Garden. They've had most of the reasonable sized fish here but there are still a few.

Another Cormorant was preening on a post at the island.

A Moorhen wandered through floating leaves by the edge.

A female Pochard preened by the bridge ...

... and so did the Wigeon on the Round Pond.

A squirrel rootled through a flower bed in the Rose Garden looking for bulbs recently planted to come up in the spring. Probably some of these are poisonous but squirrels have a hardy digestion.