A Pied Wagtail at the Lido restaurant approached and ran around my feet. If you stay still they sometimes forget you're there.

A Carrion Crow was busy drinking what was probably a spill from a heavily sweetened cappuccino.

On the shore, a Black-Headed Gull had found a hoverfly larva.

On Buck Hill a Blue Tit ate a pine nut on an alder twig. This is a subject I've videoed before, but it's always a pleasure to see these beautiful little birds picking so daintily at their food.

Usually only one of the Coal Tits at the bridge will come to my hand to be fed, but it was a cold day and they were hungry so, after some hesitation, the other one flew down too.

Several Jays had no hesitation at all, and swooped to grab peanuts from my fingers.

Tom was photographing this and got some dramatic shots that I will publish later.

A Starling at the leaf yard shone in the low sunlight.

The female Little Owl at the Queen's Temple basked at the front of her hole.

The Grey Heron on the lower nest was still stting on her eggs, barely visible over the top of the nest. This heron is in the upper nest, where there is still no sign of laying.

This is the male of the pair of Egyptian Geese at the Henry Moore sculpture. The female is now on her nest, and he has nothing to do until the eggs hatch. Herons, on the other hand, take turns to sit on the nest.

So do Great Crested Grebes, but luckily none of them has been silly enough to start breeding now, and they can spend their days lounging around until later in the year.

The white Mallard has taken to hanging about under the collapsed willow tree next to the bridge.

A Mute Swan took off from the Serpentine and worked to gain height to pass over the bridge. They won't fly under it.

The huge blue-eyed Greylag was on the Serpentine. No one knows whether it's a domestic goose or a hybrid of a domestic goose and a wild Greylag.

Some aspiring baristas were trying to perform bar tricks. They were only moderately successful, and will have to practise a lot more.

After the recent picture of a mushroom that wasn't a Yellow Fieldcap, this one is. They come up early in the day and only last a few hours. The yellow colour fades to a brown spot at the centre of the cap, and the mushroom dries out and withers. But it has done its job of distibuting spores.

The Grey Herons in the lowest nest on the island are now definitely sitting on eggs.

In the other three nests, the occupants are still standing up.

A tight group of Red-Crested Pochards rushed around near the Serpentine island. Inevitably, with four drakes and one female, there was a certain amount of conflict.

The odd group of one Red-Crested Pochard drake with a pair of Mallards can still be seen in the pond in the Italian Garden. They seem to have settled down peacefully together.

A Gadwall drake at Peter Pan showed off his beautifully vermiculated plumage.

A Mute Swan's bath involves splashing on a grand scale.

It's a tough life being a Black-Headed Gull. When you aren't being knocked off your perch by a Moorhen ...

... you're being evicted by a gull higher up in the pecking order.

But the mate of the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull has an easy time sharing his pigeons.

The gulls have already made a memorable mess of the tarpaulin over the pedalos moored for the winter. Bluebird Boats might as well go into the guano business.

Dunnocks spend much of their time under bushes and usually out of sight. This is one the familiar pair at the Lido, under a red-stemmed dogwood bush.

A Great Tit came out on top of the bush to be fed.

A Carrion Crow on the wall of the Italian Garden shelled a peanut with practised skill.

The Blackbird beside the Long Water arrived for his customary treat of sultanas.

Yet another Song Thrush was singing, on a cold and univiting day. This one was in a chestnut tree on the west side of the leaf yard.

The female Little Owl at the Queen's Temple stayed low in her hole to avoid the chilly wind.

Tom reports that the Waxwings moving down from the north have now reached Hampshire, where he took this fine picture (though it's a little too late for a Christmas card). We would be very lucky to see them in the park. There are too few trees with berries, and almost all of them have already been stripped by other birds.

The female Little Owl at the Queen's Temple was looking disgruntled ...

... because there was an Egyptian Goose honking on the branch a few feet to her hole.

The male was flitting around agitatedly in the top of the tree, and wouldn't stop for a moment to have his picture taken.

Both the Peregrines were on the barracks tower.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull shooed away an intruder ...

... but there was a rare glimpse of a family group with what must be their offspring from last year.

A Black-Headed Gull had a cheesy snack. Despite careful research I can't identify it, but since it is probably from a stall at the Winter Wasteland it could be from anywhere.

The Grey Heron in the Dell shooed away some Black-Headed Gulls that were interfering with its fishing.

The herons in the lowest nest on the island are still incessantly poking around in the bottom of the nest, and it really does look as if they already have eggs. The other three nests remain occupied but don't seem so far advanced.

A Cormorant caught a perch in the Long Water near the Italian Garden.

A pair of Gadwalls cruised around in one of the fountains.

The female Great Crested Grebe of the pair at the west end of the island is still in her plain winter plumage while the other grebes are growing their breeding finery, and her mate is already completely in his summer feathers.

One of the pair of Dunnocks at the Lido came out to forage on the edge of the water.

A Robin had caught a very small larva in a bush near Peter Pan.

A small band of Long-Tailed Tits went past.

A Wren came out on a bramble near the Buck Hill shelter.

An elegant carriage waited at Queen's Gate to attend a wedding at Holy Trinity Church in Prince Consort Road, a neo-Gothic building of 1901 by G.F. Bodley shoehorned into an odd-shaped site on a hill. It must be difficult to get into this vehicle in a wedding dress, and harder to get out.

Song Thrushes sometime sing on sunny days in midwinter. New Year's Day was fairly bright and not cold. This thrush in the Dell was just singing softly to itself.

There were two Song Thrushes in the Flower Walk. This one sang quietly in a bush.

The other Song Thrush in the Flower Walk was singing at full volume.

A male Chaffinch in the Rose Garden paused before coming to the feeder.

The usual female Chaffinch appeared in the leaf yard.

A small flock of Goldfinches passed through the treetops beside the Long Water.

There is a colony of Wrens in the Dell and on the other side of the upper path. This one paused on the railings of the Dell restaurant for just long enough for one photograph.

Later a Wren, probably a different one, walked across the top of the Dell waterfall.

A Robin perched in a bush lower down the slope.

A Magpie bathed in the small waterfall at the bottom.

The Little Owl at the Queen's Temple was at the front of her hole all day, waiting for the park to close so that she could go hunting.

One of the Peregrines was on the barracks tower.

Whenever I pass the lower Grey Heron nest, one of the birds is poking around in the bottom.

They are also bringing twigs, as a lot of the nest has fallen down since it was last used and it needs building up again.

The small Black-Headed Gulls balance easily on the plastic buoys surrounding the Lido swimming area. Slightly bigger Common Gulls can tip them over and fall off if they aren't careful. Large Herring Gulls struggle to stay on top. They clearly enjoy the balancing game.

This is the Great Crested Grebe that was rescued from the Dell, healthy and fishing busily but alone, while all the other grebes are in pairs. But more grebes will fly in quite soon, and it should find a mate.

A few small, frail mushrooms had come up between the Queen's Temple and the Albert Memorial. My best guess -- not a reliable one -- is that they are Yellow Fieldcaps, which fade rapidly during the course of the day.

Update: No, they aren't, because they were still there a day later. Yellow Fieldcaps would have withered in this time.