Most of the action today was around the rowan trees on Buck Hill. Almost all the fruit is gone from the two large trees, but there are also some saplings that have fruit left. Redwings, a Blackbird and Rose-Ringed Parakeets were feeding here. It's a pity that the parakeets have noticed the rowans at last. They will strip off the fruit in a couple of days, wasting most of it.

Redwings ate fallen fruit under the largest rowan.

There were more in the treetops waiting to come down.

The Mistle Thrush was annoyed by the crowd but couldn't do much about a whole flock.

Also present were a Jay ...

... a Magpie ...

... and three Wood Pigeons having a pause for digestion after gorging on fruit.

The Little Owl just along the path had found a new place to rest among the leaves in the old squirrel drey, but all you could see was one brilliant yellow eye.

Another Wood Pigeon was in the Dell eating the blossom off a mahonia bush.

Two Cormorants at the island had a momentary disagreement.

A Black-Headed Gull and a Coot ate side by side in peace for a few seconds, but the belligerent Coot couldn't resist having a go at the gull.

A Great Crested Grebe fished under the willow near the bridge ...

... through whose branches you could see a female Mallard resting beside a football.

Tufted Ducks were backlit by the low sun.

Greylag Geese find the Diana fountain a good place to drink, wash and preen.

There was a little brown cup-shaped mushroom in the wood chips under the Caucasian Elm in the Rose Garden. I don't think it's some exotic species symbiotic with the foreign elm. It probably came in with the wood chips.

The sun was setting behind the trees as I left.

Heavy rain has flooded the flat area to the north of the Serpentine, and it was still raining this morning, keeping most people and their dogs away. Greylag Geese, and some Canadas in the background, were free to wander among the puddles and eat the grass.

An Egyptian Goose preened its large multicoloured wings.

So did a female Mallard, showing off its iridescent blue secondaries. I suppose the bright, varied wing colours of ducks enable them to recognise their own species while migrating.

There are a lot of Gadwalls in the park, I would estimate at least 30, and their numbers have been increasing for some months so it's not just an arrival of migrants. At this rate they should soon outnumber the Mallards.

The Winter Wasteland has finally shut for another year and you can actually hear the birds in the Rose Garden. A Robin sang quietly in a bush in the Rose Garden instead of having to yell at the top of its voice.

Even on the edge of the funfair compound, despite the lorries taking the rides away, you could hear small birds moving around in the trees. Great Tits ...

... and Coal Tits were hunting insects in the branches.

On Buck Hill, fruit is getting scarce on the rowan trees. There were still a few Redwings ...

... but the Blackbirds had switched to picking up fallen fruit from the ground.

There were also Wood Pigeons, but anyway it's easier for them eating on the ground than trying to cling to the thin twigs.

The female Little Owl could just be seen in the squirrel drey. She is so used to me now that she doesn't even bother to look round.

The aggressive Black-Headed Gull was still dominating the landing stage at the Diana fountain .

The subject of Jackdaws recently seen in St James's Park came up in recent comments. They disappeared from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park in 1968 when the elm trees they nested in were killed by the Elm Bark Beetle. A small population remained in Bayswater, where I sometimes saw them on chimneys. Five or six years ago they started to creep back into the northwest corner of Kensington Gardens, very shy and wary at first but becoming more relaxed and very gradually expanding their territory. It was another two years before they were seen in Hyde Park, but they have finally got right to the southeast corner, and here is one in the Rose Garden, which evidently knew me as it was expecting a peanut.

So their next stop is St James's Park, less than a mile away. In a year or two I expect them to become common there.

As sunset approached the weather cleared up. Gulls circled in the last of the thermals to gain  height for the flight to their roosts.

Colder weather has not deterred the Song Thrush at the leaf yard, which was singing fit to bust. Several others could be heard in other parts of Kensington Gardens.

The rowan trees on Buck Hill are beginning to run out of fruit. There was just one Redwing when I went past.

Tom sent a fine picture from Rainham Marshes of a Redwing eating hawthorn fruit. Here in the park we don't have enough hawthorns, and the fruit is already gone. However, more are being planted, and some are growing from seed on Buck Hill.

Another picture from Tom, a female Kestrel on one of the light wells at the Rainham visitor centre. She is now a regular and the people have named her Kirsty, not that she knows or cares.

The Peregrine on the Royal Lancaster Hotel ate a Feral Pigeon.

The combined efforts of two pairs of Peregrines, a pair of Sparrowhawks ands four large gulls don't make the slightest difference to the teeming mass of pigeons. In Kensington Gardens they meet to socialise and bathe on a fallen concrete block in front of the Peter Pan statue.

The female Little Owl on Buck Hill gave the camera a sleepy glance before settling down in the leaves.

On a bank holiday Monday there were quite a lot of people on the outside tables at the Lido restaurant. But only a single Starling had noticed and turned up to look for scraps.

A young Herring Gull ...

... and a young Lesser Black-Back are just beginning to get adult light and dark grey feathers on their backs. The Lesser Black-Back is slightly darker, smaller and more delicate than the Herring Gull.

A Mute Swan on the Serpentine hauled itself into the air.

Even in the fairly crowded places on the edge of the Serpentine, if there is a pair of Egyptian Geese near a lone goose, they will call and chase it away. The female quacks, the male makes a hoarse panting sound.

A male Egyptian Goose tried to mate on the sawn-off top of a tree, and fell off. Nothing was hurt but his pride.

I was looking for the Peregrine on the Royal Lancaster Hotel, but there was nothing there except some Carrion Crows soaring in the updraught caused by the tower.

But then a raptor went past, at a considerable distance. It wasn't a Peregrine, it was a Red Kite. Two Herring Gulls were harassing it.

The Little Owls on Buck Hill are getting harder to see as they work their way down into the leaves of the squirrel drey. If you want to see them it's probably best to come at dusk in the hope of finding one coming out on a branch to start hunting when the people are gone.

A Blackbird was eating fruit in one of the rowan trees ...

... when a Redwing landed inches away and pushed it out of the tree. I think this was an accident, as Redwings are smaller than Blackbirds and quite timid.

A minute later the Redwing was gone and the Blackbird returned to the same branch to carry on feeding.

A Robin sang in the Rose Garden. The Wasteland will be closing soon and they won't have to shout to make themselves heard.

A Carrion Crow bathed at the Vista.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull is losing the dark winter streaks on his head, which will soon be the pure white of his breeding plumage. This picture shows the distinctive dark spots on the iris of his eye.

Grey Herons on the island fondled each other mildly and picked twigs to add to the nest.

In the water below two pairs of Great Crested Grebes had a territorial dispute. They stuck to threatening manoeuvres and it didn't come to a fight.

The mild spell is coming to an end, but today it brought out a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee on a patch of mahonia in the Rose Garden. (Or at least I think it's a Buff-Tailed Bumblebee, but its stripes are very dark and reddish and the tip of its abdomen very white.)

Abigail even got a Honeybee on a hellebore in her Notting Hill garden.

Mark Williams filmed Great Tits and Blue Tits coming to his hand in St James's Park, near the shrubbery that conceals the leaf yard.

Tom was at Rainham Marshes, where he got a fine picture of a Great Egret flying ...

... and some visiting Barnacle Geese.

The Song Thrush at the leaf yard sang cheerfully to welcome the New Year.

A Blackbird eating rowan fruit on Buck Hill was knocked out of the tree by the resident Mistle Thrush which regards the tree as its property.

A Redwing was left unmolested.

The female Little Owl was just about visible ...

... but this was all you could see of her mate beside her in the shelter of the squirrel drey.

Another Blackbird explored the fallen leaves in the Rose Garden.

A Robin ignored a light shower.

Long-Tailed Tits flew along the edge of the Long Water.

A female Great Spotted Woodpecker probed a tree across the path from the leaf yard.

A gang of Magpies chattered in a treetop.

The Black-Headed Gull which owns the landing stage at the Diana fountain chased off a couple of first-year gulls that have landed on its territory.

Two Grey Herons stood in the moored rowing boats. The one on the right is a young bird hatched on the island last year.

A pair of Moorhens preened on a wire fence beside the Serpentine. With their big strong feet and perfect balance, standing on a wire is no problem.

A Wigeon drake has arrived on the Round Pond. Thanks to Virginia for a fine picture of this handsome creature.

A proper car for a New Year's Day ride. It's a pre-1930 Austin Seven.