You usually see Black-Headed Gulls in a mob, and don't realise how many of them are actually couples staying together outside the breeding season. A pair beside the Serpentine called to each other, bowed, spread their wings slightly and walked around together.

The female of this pair in the Italian Garden is only a first-year bird, but the two seem to be an item.

A Wren perched on a bush in the Rose Garden ...

... and a Dunnock wandered around on the tarmac path, picking up grit.

The Coal Tit in the Flower Walk waited to be fed ...

... and so did a Jay lurking in the shadows under a tree.

A Carrion Crow drank from a shallow muddy puddle. They really do seem to like their drinking water muddy.

The Mistle Thrush was in its usual place in the rowan tree.

A Pied Wagtail hunted along the edge of the Serpentine ...

... and another worked over the roof of the Serpentine Gallery.

A Grey Heron landed on a nest on the island.

Blondie the Egyptian Goose has already had a mate and two broods, one of which was successful. But she lost her mate a few years ago and has had off-and-on relationships with other males since then. This is the latest one. She was on her home patch near the Dell restaurant, only 50 yards from where she was hatched in a ground nest in a patch of scrub.

Shovellers' feeding technique of extracting small creatures from the water by filtering them through the bristles in their bill is very labour-intensive, and they spend a lot of their time feeding.

More Gadwalls have appeared on the Long Water. Unlike Shovellers or Pochards, the ones in the park don't migrate. They seem to move around at random, and may appear or disappear at any time.

Two large pike were visible from the parapet of the Italian Garden. This is one of them, well over two feet long.

Another pleasing picture by Tom from Miller's Wood: a bronze tap provides a perch for a Blue Tit.

Rose-Ringed Parakeets are not yet fully adapted to the English climate, and spend cold nights sheltering in holes. A pair examined a suitable place in a plane tree. It will probably be used as a nest hole in spring.

A Robin in the Rose Garden had to raise its voice to compete with gruesome Christmas songs coming from the Winter Wonderland.

There were two other Robins in the Rose Garden, making the point that Christmas belongs to them and not to some huckster with a cheesy CD.

This Robin in the Flower Walk comes out to be given pine nuts, but hasn't yet dared to come to my hand.

The young Grey Wagtail that visits the Italian Garden fountains is remarkably calm about people coming quite close.

But it has been photographed and filmed it from the moment it was hatched at the Lido last summer.

Long-Tailed Tits are not shy. They simply ignore humans.

I still haven't been able to photograph the Mistle Thrush in the rowan tree eating fruit. Usually Mistle Thrushes gather in a tree near the rowan and then make a united raid on it, cramming themselves with fruit within a minute and then flying away to digest it. But this solitary thrush stays in the tree the whole time, mostly doing nothing.

One of the Grey Herons on the island was in a nest for the second day running. But it would be foolish to suppose that the pair were serious about nesting. They can hang around a nest for months before deciding to breed.

The horse chestnut tree near the Serpentine Gallery that recently broke in half has become a heron lookout post.

A Black-Headed Gull found what was evidently a 'rat-tailed maggot', a hoverfly larva with a long siphon for breathing underwater. The larva is larger than the adult, probably Eristalis tenax with is common in the park and about the size of a housefly, and its siphon may be a couple of inches long. But it looks huge because it's covered in algae. The gull flew away with it to peck off the weed in a secluded place.

A pair of Great Crested Grebes displayed on the Serpentine.

A Gadwall drake looked for food in fallen leaves at the Dell restaurant terrace.

Greylag Geese headed away in line astern.

A Mute Swan looked most undignified heaving and flopping into a fountain in the Italian Garden.

The Mistle Thrush was in the rowan tree on Buck Hill, along with a Magpie and a Jay. All were looking a bit unsettled, as the thrush was clearly thinking of chasing the other two out of its private tree. The Jay's nerve failed first.

A Blue Tit was too small to be considered a nuisance, and went on looking for insects.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits passed through the trees at the foot of the hill.

A Wren hopped around in a patch of weeds.

A female Chaffinch perched on a twig in the Flower Walk.

Tom was at Miller's Wood, where he got a pleasing close-up of a Goldfinch. As usual there were none of these common birds in the park, but I saw several in the street on the way home.

An interesting picture by Tom from the same place: a Blue Tit ignored a much larger Great Spotted Woodpecker. It would have been a different story in the nesting season, as woodpeckers peck away the wood in front of tits' nest holes to eat the nestlings.

A Jackdaw looked out from a pile of logs beside the Long Water.

A Carrion Crow shone in the sunlight on the railings.

A crow drank from the Serpentine. I only filmed this ordinary scene because the background was pretty.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull was also thirsty.

A Common Gull was getting the pure white head of its breeding plumage very early.

A Grey Heron was nearly out of its depth in the Long Water. They can swim if they have to, but very awkwardly.

Sixteen Cormorants stood at one end of the island ...

... and a seventeenth was by itself at the other end.

A pair of Moorhens searched for insects in the gaps between paving stones at the edge of the Serpentine.

A pair of Egyptian Geese harmonised with fallen leaves under the trees near the Dell.

There seemed to be a mass of larvae in this hole in a branch in the Dell, which was being explored by two Long-Tailed Tits.

A Blue Tit shooed them away so it could feed undisturbed.

A Dunnock looked for insects under a bench beside the Huntress fountain in the Rose Garden.

There was also a female Blackbird here ...

...and a Pied Wagtail at the Lido, on the same quest.

A sunny interval started a Goldcrest singing in a holly tree a short way north of the bridge.

There was no sign of the Mistle Thrush on Buck Hill, which was hardly surprising as a Sparrowhawk was passing overhead.

The fall of the leaves has exposed what I think is the Little Owls' hole in the horse chestnut tree next to the Serpentine Gallery. At any rate I can't see any other hole, and this one is large enough for the owl and would lead to a more spacious hollow in the tree. There was no sign of the owls. Although it wasn't cold, they would tend to stay inside till the park closed and they could come out to hunt on the ground.

Two Grey Herons were already in nests on the island,

The second one one was rebuilding the nest, which had fallen into disrepair after being used in the summer. Our herons start making nests early but then shilly-shally for months before actually breeding. In contrast, the herons in Battersea Park get the whole thing done around the New Year.

The younger of the two rabbits was at the Henry Moore sculpture ...

... but vanished in a flash when three herons landed.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull wasn't bothered by the notice, which said nothing about feeding on the wildlife.

A Great Crested Grebe cruised under the bridge.

A Mute Swan had a brisk wash and a mighty flap on the Serpentine.

Mallards ignored a heavy shower. I couldn't, and was sheltering under the bridge when I took this picture.

There are still some Common Wasps on the fatsia at the bridge.