A dim day

It was a dark grey day with a chilly east wind. There was so little light that any picture not taken in the open was quite bad. At least the sun is now beginning to crawl up the sky after its low point at the winter solstice. A very late red hot poker flower in the Rose Garden was doing its best to look bright but not really succeeding.

There were more Blue Tits here than Great Tits, which is unusual. Their numbers have been building up over the past few weeks. Perhaps word is getting around that someone will feed them.

The Coal Tits tend to stay at the top of the tall lime hedge on the south side and whizz down suddenly to your hand when you aren't looking.

The two in the Dell are easier to photograph, waiting patiently because they know they'll get their pine nuts in due course.

The reliable Robin at the southwest corner of the bridge was fluffed up to the maximum against the cold.

The Robins at Mount Gate, which are mates in the breeding season, were chasing each other around the flower bed. This dim picture was taken at 2.55 pm, when already the shadows were closing in.

The Pied Wagtail was at Fisherman's Keep, well to the east of her usual hunting ground.

This left the shore near the Lido vacant for the Grey Wagtail, which otherwise would have been chased off.

It preferred not to head into the chilly east wind, but got ruffled for facing the wrong way.

Near the Wasteland a paper container that had held churros with chocolate sauce was monopolised by one dominant Feral Pigeon, which shooed the other pigeons and a Black-Headed Gull away.

Jackdaws appeared all the way along the shore from the island to the Dell restaurant.

A Jay waited in a winged elm by the Italian Garden.

I looked up this peculiar tree. It's a native of the eastern United States, and was briefly planted in Britain as an ornamental species in the 19th century but remains quite rare here. It's said to be susceptible to Dutch elm disease which killed the English elms in the park, but it's thriving and spreading around the edge of the Long Water. The distinctive ribs on the bark of the twigs only appear after two years, so new shoots are smooth.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull on the landing stage was annoyed because a young Herring Gull was standing in his favourite place.

The Grey Herons in the nest at the west end of the island were together again. This new pair seem much more enthusiastic than the previous occupants.

There's a large group of nests close together in the middle of the island, which is odd because only one pair would be able to nest here without serious territorial conflict. It's not at all clear what's going on at the moment because the nests are too high to see into from the shore.

Just one Cormorant was left on the Serpentine, fishing under moored pedalos at the boat hire platform. There are still a few others on the Long Water.

A group of Mute Swans on the edge of the Serpentine abandoned their rivalry for a while and preened peacefully together.