Wintersweet

A Blue Tit perched among wintersweet blossom in the Flower Walk.

A Coal Tit at Mount Gate looked down rather nervously from a twig. They are among the smallest British birds, at 8-10 grams lighter than a Wren, and have to keep their distance from larger birds.

Several mahonia bushes in the Rose Garden are in different stages of flowering, and a Wood Pigeon was taking advantage of one.

If we have a sunny day there's a good chance of seeing an overwintering Buff-Tailed Bumblebee in one, as these flowers keep them fed in December in January, followed by hellebore.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond was perched low in her hole.

A Carrion Crow bathed in the Serpentine ...

... annoying a Coot, which chased it out of the water.

A pair of crows perched side by side on the top of the holly tree beside the Long Water where the Magpies like to go.

The Magpies had been forced farther up the lake.

A Common Gull preened on the edge of the Serpentine. Despite their name they are the least numerous of the four gull species we see routinely in the park, with seldom more than 50 present.

This Grey Heron on the edge of the island is one of the pair that are nesting. It has a faint pink tinge to its bill, its breeding colours, but not bright red like the other heron that's claiming a nest.

There were still half a dozen Cormorants on the posts at Peter Pan.

The Moorhen pair at the Vista poked around by the edge.

The Great Crested Grebes that nested beside the bridge were patrolling their territory. It's a large patch including the whole of the Long Water and a stretch on the opposite side of the bridge, showing that they have a high status.

The next pair of grebes on the Serpentine, from the west end of the island, were displaying.

The youngest grebe, from the family at the east end of the island, was fishing at the outflow.

Wet morning

Morning rain kept the Little Owl at the Round Pond indoors.

A Magpie turned over wet leaves.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits passed through the trees by the Italian Garden. They were not helpful in coming into view, and this obstructed shot was the best I could get.

Pigeons canoodled on the shore at the Triangle car park ...

... and a Pied Wagtail trotted up the edge.

A small tree near the Flower Walk was infested with Rose-Ringed Parakeets. Of course someone was feeding them. You only have to start and a shrieking mob arrives.

The Grey Herons on the island changed places on their eggs as the tree swayed in the wind.

The young heron is staying in the Diana fountain reed bed. Whoever scared it away from the Lido restaurant terrace must have done a thorough job. It's probably for the best, though. The heron at the Dell restaurant that became unbearably bold disappeared mysteriously and I fear it met a sticky end.

The lawn next to the Dell turns into a swamp when it rains heavily, and the waterlogged worms float to the surface. The Herring Gulls know this, and there was a small party working its way across looking for an easy snack.

Now that most of the Cormorants have gone away, a pair of Lesser Black-Backed Gulls have taken possession of the raft on the Long Water. They could nest there if they felt like it, which would be interesting.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull yelled at some Coots that had intruded on his patch.

Coots don't usually do much climbing, unlike Moorhens, but this one had got on top of a clump of dead iris leaves in the Italian Garden. No doubt there were insects to be had.

The Great Crested Grebes from the bridge were mooching around their nest site again. It's quite a good fishing spot as well.

The temporary plastic barriers screening the damage to the bridge have been replaced with metal mesh, and you can see how extensive the damage is. This will take a long time to repair, as massive new sandstone blocks have to be cut.

Dark and wet

It was a very dark and drizzly day, and I'm afraid today's pictures are a poor lot.

The dominant Black-Headed Gull that claims the landing stage as its property has no difficulty in seeing off other gulls that try to perch on it. But Moorhens can frighten Black-Headed Gulls, and enjoy their power. After pushing the gull around for a while it tired of the game, jumped down and swam off.

A Moorhen in the Italian Garden took the opportunity of damp feathers to have a preen.

The Great Crested Grebes that nested under the willow near the bridge met in the middle of the Long Water and greeted each other ceremoniously ...

... then went to inspect their old nest site.

They can't breed successfully till the stock of small fish increases in the summer, and this pair know it and waited till the right time last season. I don't think they intend to nest soon, but a grebe's basic instinct is to nest early and they can't resist making a gesture.

Grey Herons can and do breed in midwinter, and this pair on the island have certainly started. The sitting bird was hunkered down out of sight, and its mate was on its usual perch where it waits when off the nest. Both sexes take turns to incubate the eggs.

The killer Mute Swan and his family saw me standing on the edge and hurried over hoping to be fed. They were disappointed.

The pair of Egyptian Geese at the Italian Garden enjoyed a muddy puddle.

A waterproof Pochard stood on the shore.

The worryingly low number of Tufted Ducks has increased -- probably they fly around the central London parks more or less at random. There was a group of around 30 all along the Diana fountain reed bed ...

... and more at the east end of the island with some Shovellers. Including stragglers on other parts of the lake I'd say that we have at least 50 at the moment.

A Pied Wagtail ignored the drizzle and hunted along the shore.

The pair of Coal Tits at Mount Gate are regularly seen, but there are never more than a few of these charming little birds in the park.

The pair of Magpies between the bridge and the Vista are always visible, because they expect to be fed. They were on their favourite lookout point at the top of a holly tree.

A Magpie by the Round Pond perched in a young oak which was keeping its leaves over the winter.

The Little Owl at the back of her hole was practically invisible in the dim light.

The joy of chocolate cake

A young Herring Gull on the boat hire platform picked crumbs of chocolate cake off a cardboard wrapper and amused itself by throwing it around. Chocolate is bad for birds and all animals because they are sensitive to the stimulant theobromine in it, but there really isn't much chocolate in chocolate cake.

On another part of the platform a Pied Wagtail examined bird droppings to see if there were any insects on them.

The young Grey Wagtail stood on a rock in the Dell.

Two Redwings were visible to the west of the leaf yard, one in a tree ...

... and the other on the ground looking for worms.

The dominant Robin in the Flower Walk came out for his daily treat of pine nuts and took seven.

This Robin on the path near the bridge is still shy, but accepted one thrown on the ground.

Another sight of a Coal Tit at Mount Gate, where there's a pair.

The Little Owl at the Round Pond could be seen at the back of her hole.

Feral pigeons have a noticeable preference for mates of the same colour. A grey and white male pursued a female beside the Dell.

The Winter Wasteland has encouraged more and more people to feed parakeets in the nearby Rose Garden, and now it's really getting out of hand. It seems harmless to amuse yourself by feeding these pretty green birds, but they are invasive pests and when their numbers build up they drive the small native birds out of the area. In Kensington Gardens a fair-sized area south of the leaf yard has been completely ruined both by banishing the songbirds and by hundreds of feeders trampling the ground into a swamp. It is now fenced off.

The young Grey Heron that used to beg at the Lido restaurant has been keeping away, and although the terrace was busy on a holiday with reasonable weather it was staying in the cut reed bed. I think the restaurant staff have been scaring it off.

The mate of the sitting Grey Heron on the island stood on another nest. There are a lot of disused nests in the trees here which provide comfortable places to hang about.

Black-Headed Gulls lined up on the roof of a boathouse, and of course there was one playing the game of knocking another off. They kept a tactful distance from the three young Herring Gulls at the end of the ridge.

The Black-Headed Gull EZ73301, who likes to perch on this sign, had been evicted by a Common Gull, who stood on it in a haughty attitude. I think it's always the same Common Gull that claims the sign.

The pair of Egyptian Geese that live in the Italian Garden, standing on a nearby tree, saw another pair intruding on their territory on the ground below and staged a noisy display, which sent the intruders off without a fight. Sorry about the noise from the six fountains, but that's what it's like there.