Treecreepers have been hard to find recently, so it was good to see one near Queen's Gate. There are actually lots of them in the park, but they are small, well camouflaged, shy and above all quiet, and very easy to miss.

Just up the hill, the female Little Owl was looking out of her hole in the oak tree.

And the female near the Henry Moore sculpture had come out, on a grey drizzly but mild day. As you view here in her usual place she has her back to the light, which makes it hard to get a good picture.

One of the Blue Tits near the bridge posed prettily on a bramble.

A party of Starlings were having a communal bath in the Serpentine.

A Cormorant was searching for fish in the wire baskets next to the bridge. It didn't find a single one in the ten minutes I was watching. The Cormorants have really fished out the lake now, and there won't be anything to interest them till next summer.

This very small Egyptian Goose on the edge of the Serpentine near the island is, I think, the undersized one hatched last year. It was always far smaller than the rest of the brood, and no one thought it would survive, but it fought its way to adulthood.

Some Common Gulls were amusing themselves by balancing on the buoys at the Lido. It's a good game because they are slightly too heavy for the buoys, which keep tipping over, so that they have to flap to stay on.

The pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull and his mate were taking a rest from hunting, and were on their favourite perch on the roof of the Dell restaurant.

Since the funfair closed there have been fewer visitors here, less food dropped, and fewer Feral Pigeons, and the gulls have been hunting at different places around the lake.

At the Lido restaurant, a Lesser Black-Backed Gull had found a cupcake case with some delicious chocolate cake stuck to it, and took its prize into the water to eat it.

A Mute Swan barged in, seized it, and started scraping the cake off the paper.

But the gull struck back, carried it off, and settled the matter by swallowing the whole thing, paper and all.

Statuettes of three Hindu gods, I think Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesh, were on the base of an urn in the Italian Garden. They had been placed looking out over the lake. I moved them round for this picture, then put them back in their proper place.

There has been no sign of a Green Woodpecker for some time, so it was pleasing to hear one laughing derisively from a tree overlooking the Rose Garden.

In the garden, the familiar Dunnock was poking around in a rose bed. Living in a busy spot has made it remarkably fearless, and it's easy to photograph.

The pair of Blackbirds at the southwest corner are also used to crowds, as well as bicycles whizzing past. The soggy strip of grass is an idea Blackbird spot, full of worms.

I gave each of them a bit of digestive biscuit as a modelling fee.

A Robin in a bramble patch at the side of the Long Water came out to be fed. How do they manage to land on such formidably thorny stems and always get their toes between the thorns? There must be a bit of lightning-fast shuffling as they settle.

The lowest nest on the island had a pair of Grey Herons in it.

A skein of Canada Geese came charging up the misty lake.

A pair of Mute Swans were courting at the east end.

A group of swans had been preening here, and the water was covered with little white feathers. Some Shovellers had no difficulty in filtering them out.

A young Herring Gull dived into the lake to pick up a stone from the bottom.

The gulls' playground is a sharply defined area, the easternmost part of the south shore of the Serpentine. You hardly ever see one playing anywhere else.

The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was dozing at the back of her hole, and wasn't woken by being photographed.

This is the female of the pair near the Henry Moore sculpture, I think. She is more angular and square-headed than the other females, almost the typical shape of a male, but when she's with her mate you can see how much larger she is.

Thomas the Tank Engine, Spongebob Squarepants, a Minion, Hello Kitty and Minnie Mouse were aboard a rocket ship escaping from Winter Wonderland. They were last seen heading for Mayfair.

There was a film of very thin ice on the Serpentine, not quite enough to support a Black-Headed Gull. Everywhere it walked, the ice cracked under it. It tired of this and went to sit in a patch of clear water.

The ice was thicker on the Long Water, which is less exposed to the wind, but it was melting, and even an agile Moorhen was having difficulty walking on the slippery surface.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes, confident that the freezing weather is over for the time being, had remained on the Serpentine and were resting side by side. A seriously cold spell causes them to fly to the upper reaches of the Thames, which never freezes.

The white Mallard was making his way along the south side of the Serpentine, followed by his two inseparable companions.

A Magpie was having a wash. Or rather, as Magpies do, it was having a series of short plunges into the lake, alternating with drying and preening on a nearby branch. The whole process takes as much as half a hour. Magpies always look very clean and neat.

This is almost certainly the pair of Magpies I photographed together yesterday, in exactly the same spot near the leaf yard. It looks like love.

This Carrion Crow on the edge of the Serpentine is my old friend Headbanger, who flies over my head and bashes me if not promptly fed. He was expecting a peanut, and not happy about the delay caused by photographing him.

When I was in the Rose Garden one of the feeders was being refilled. The moment it was done, a Goldfinch flew down to it from one of the trees overlooking the garden. It must have been very hungry, because Goldfinches are normally shy and don't let you get close to them.

A Dunnock was on the path picking up grit.

One of the Wrens in the Dell colony came out into the open for a moment.

A Coal Tit perched in a prematurely blossoming bush next to the bridge.

The female Little Owl near the Albert Memorial was looking down from her hole.

Some pastel-coloured penguins from the funfair were looking sad as they waited to the taken to wherever plastic penguins go when they aren't in Winter Wonderland.

A Song Thrush was singing at the top of an alder near the Rose Garden. Often a sunny day will start them singing in the depth of winter.

A remarkably bold female Blackbird by the Dell advanced on me, clearly expecting to be fed. When I back off to take a photograph she came farther forward, so it was quite hard to get a shot. She got her food, of course.

A Jay in the leaf yard was also hoping for a contribution.

On the grass below, several Magpies were looning about. I think the one on the left is one of this year's young seeing if it can still get a parent to feed it. But it might be a female testing to see if a prospective mate will bring food. Anyway, the other bird took no notice.

The female Little Owl was looking out of the oak tree near the Albert Memorial.

In the next tree, a pair of Goldcrests were chasing each other around.

Near the Dell restaurant, a Lesser Black-Backed Gull was eating the last scraps of a pigeon carcase. I think this is the second pigeon-eating gull, the one with pinkish legs. But I also think it hadn't caught this one, and it was finishing off a pigeon killed by the first gull, which was nowhere to be seen.

At the Lido, two young Mute Swans were playing with a buoy, pulling it over and watching it bob upright again.

The sunshine flattered the smart plumage of a Gadwall.

A pair of Tufted Ducks were also looking very fine.

Mud doesn't stick to a Pochard's feathers, but it does to its bill. This one, which had been dabbling in some sticky place, really needed to wash its face.

There was a little group of Shovellers on the Round Pond.