Time for some songs

A Robin sang on a yew hedge in the Flower Walk. On a cold day you could see little puffs of vapour coming out of its beak with each phrase.

A Song Thrush sang rather quietly in a treetop behind the Queen's Temple.

Some humans were having a go too on the path by the Diana memorial fountain.

A few Redwings were flying around the trees north of the Speke obelisk.

The small birds displaced from the ruin of the Rose Garden shrubbery are now mostly in one of the few remaining clumps of small trees and plants on the lawn to the south. A Blue Tit stared down imperiously.

A Coal Tit managed to stay still for a couple of seconds.

The male Chaffinch was in the flower bed below.

Two Robins were waiting.

They are beginning to tolerate each other with the still distant prospect of spring.

This is also noticeable with with the two at Mount Gate, on either side of the path in the Flower Walk, and at the Henry Moore sculpture. No doubt all four sets will prove to be mates in due course.

The Henry Moore Robin perched next to a catkin, another reminder that we only have to wait through a few more bitter weeks of winter.

A Wren bounced around in a bush below.

There was a piebald Feral Pigeon with a complicated pattern on the path by the Triangle. Apparently this pattern is called Grizzle. There is an interesting page about the various genes involved in pigeon colours here.

A Black-Headed Gull on the sign at Fisherman's Keep was not the Czech gull who owns it. A moment later the Czech gull swept in with an indignant squawk, knocked it off, and stood there looking self-satisfied.

The other dominant Black-Headed Gull, by the landing stage, watched his territory from the top of the Big Bird statue.

There was just one Cormorant left on the dead branches at the end of the island where they like to perch.

A Coot in the Italian Garden was getting deliberately drenched under the fountain. It's hard to understand why they do this, but perhaps they have the same mindset as the members of the Serpentine Swimming Club who plunge into the ice on freezing mornings.

There is another Gadwall drake here on its own ...

... in a different pool from the one that has been here for some time and is friends with a female Mallard.

The Gadwalls here have a less skewed sex ratio than the other ducks, but there is still an excess of males. All the Gadwalls on the Serpentine that I saw today were in pairs, so it seems that these are the lonely extras that can't get mates.