Green Woodpecker close up

A Green Woodpecker laughed sardonically in a tree near the Lido, so I went to have a look, expecting to find that this normally very shy bird would quickly fly away.

It did fly off the tree trunk -- but not away. Instead it landed almost at my feet and started poking unconcernedly in the grass. I've noticed before that, quite illogically, they feel safer on the ground, protected by their colour, than they do when out of reach up a tree. Sometimes I have almost stepped on one by mistake.

There had been a frost in the night, and a Wood Pigeon was having a hard time digging in the frozen soil of a flower bed in the Rose Garden.

Carrion Crows in the Dell were also having difficulty in their search for worms.

A crow had displaced the usual Black-Headed Gull from the top of the Big Bird statue, and was cawing in a self-satisfied manner.

Several Jays followed me along the edge of the Long Water.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits moved through the trees.

Both of the pair of Blue Tits in the Rose Garden are now coming for pine nuts. This one perched on an odd-looking small bush which PlantNet says is a Leatherleaf Viburnum, V. rhyditophyllum.

The Robin that lives in the yew hedge in the Flower Walk came out on the railings.

Not seen for weeks, there was a Peregrine on the barracks tower. I took a precautionary picture from across the lake, hindered by a slight mist, in case it flew away before I could get round to the other side. It did.

A Moorhen went through the Coot nest at Peter Pan in the absence of its owner, looking for insects.

Another perched on the willow by the bridge. A pair nests here every year in a place that can't be seen either from the ground or from the bridge.

The Canada x Greylag hybrid goose on the left is the mate of the pure Canada behind it. They were with another of the hybrids, of which there are three, very similar looking and almost certainly siblings.

The Egyptians at the Henry Moore sculpture are definitely not nesting yet. They were strutting about the lawn together.

I think there's only one Shoveller left on the lake. Yesterday I saw it under a tree on the Long Water. Today it was under the Dell restaurant balcony going through the windblown debris at the edge of the lake.

Here it is at work, seen looking down from the balcony.

Little Owl in a mood

A sunny day brought the Little Owl at the Round Pond out of her hole, but she was in a skittish mood and went round the back of the branch.

A pair of Feral Pigeons made eyes at each other.

A Robin sang in the corkscrew hazel bush in the Flower Walk, which has already put out catkins.

It had to compete with the noise of traffic, airliners headed for Heathrow, and a helicopter. Urban Robins have to sing much louder than their country cousins.

A Robin in the Rose Garden shrubbery arrived to pick up a pine nut.

It was joined by a Blue Tit ...

... and a Coal Tit which, in the way of Coal Tits, hates being photographed so that you have to be very quick to catch a shot.

A Song Thrush sang beautifully from a treetop against the dull roar of the Wasteland.

The funfair was being circled by a sightseeing aircraft, G-AZOL from the Stapleford Flying Club. This Piper Seneca is 53 years old but still going strong.

Heaven know why anyone wanted to see the Wasteland. We know what it looks like from the air thanks to a picture taken from an airliner by Rocky Atkins shortly after this winter's session opened. As he said, it looks like a rubbish dump.

Now that most of the Cormorants have left, the Grey Herons at the island have taken over the dead branches of the tree at the west end of the island.

The heron in the nest at this end was alone again.

A heron on the gravel strip in the Long Water was being pestered by Coots which objected to its presence. No wonder they prefer to perch in trees.

When Black-Headed Gulls perch on the buoys at the Lido, Coots cruise up and down the line staring at them, like officers inspecting their troops.

The Coot that has been busy building up its nest at Peter Pan had gone off to fetch another twig, and a Great Crested Grebe gave the site a quick check to see if any fish were lurking in the foundations.

It seems I was wrong about the female Egyptian at the Henry Moore sculpture having started nesting again. Today she was back with her mate.

The Gadwall drake in the Italian Garden still stays by itself.

The evening light lit up the marble statue of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace sculpted by her daughter Princess Louise. She has been given a new crown and a curiously long sceptre, and a whole new right arm, but nothing can be done about her badly eroded face.

We know exactly what the statue looked like when new, as there is a bronze cast of it in Montreal.

A visit to Southwark Park

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens were closed today because the management was in another of its panics about high winds, which were actually quite moderate. So I went to explore Southwark Park. This is not a major birdwatching destination but Ahmet Amerikali has taken some good pictures there, so it seemed worth exploring. The wind had completely subsided but it was raining heavily.

You enter down an avenue of fine old plane trees, planted in 1869 when the park was set up by the Metropolitan Board of Works ...

... and pass a pair of battered caryatids, retired from having to hold up a building and set on each side of a Mexican orange bush. The left one is adorned with oak, representing strength, and the right one with laurel for renown.

They originally flanked the main entrance of Rotherhithe Town Hall, a fine building of 1897 by Henry Poole in the 'streaky bacon' style of alternating red brick and stone which was then the height of fashion. Sadly it was bombed in the war.

A surprise was to find some fearless Dunnocks, normally very shy birds, which hopped around only a few feet away foraging in the fallen leaves.

Southwark Park has a thriving population of Blackbirds, which are in steep decline in the Central London parks. Rain suits them, as it brings up worms.

Earlier Ahmet had photographed one singing in the adjoining Russia Dock Woodland ...

... and also a Redwing ...

... and a Goldcrest singing in the park itself.

A wet Carrion Crow rummaged in fallen leaves, looking for insects and worms.

The centre of the park is a small but picturesque lake.

It has the usual inhabitants: Coots, Moorhens, Mallards and Tufted Ducks. One difference from the central London parks is that the Moorhens are not vastly outnumbered by Coots; in fact they were trotting around everywhere. Maybe it was the deliberate introduction of Coots to St James's Park in the 1920s that upset the balance in the centre.

There are the inevitable Egyptian Geese, of course.

Ahmet took a good picture of one of them splashing down.

And there were lots of Black-Headed Gulls, which were also all over the sodden playing fields with a few Lesser Black-Backs.

A Grey Heron stood on a boat.

The star of the visit was a Little Grebe. I wish I could have got a closer picture, but I was only carrying the small camera.

I didn't make it to Russia Dock Woodland. After an hour and a half in the rain I was so wet that I feebly turned tail and came home on the Tube.