A Pied Wagtail was hunting along the south shore of the Serpentine, advancing at a pace that made it easy to follow. It had a sequence of preferred places. From the east end of the lake it ran briskly along the shore. Then it skirted the reed bed before the Lido, went along the shore of the Lido, and flew on to the jetty to explore the crevices of the rubber mat for several minutes -- there have been several pictures of Pied Wagtails on this mat. Having exhausted this, it continued along the shore at the side of the Lido restaurant, undisturbed by people because it was too cold for them to sit outside. From here it flew into the enclosure of the Diana fountain and ran around on the well mown grass.

Finally it flew under the bridge and I lost sight of it. I expect it would have gone as far as the little lawn on the north side of the Italian Garden, where Pied Wagtails are often seen. In summer it would have included the fence posts around the reed beds, where a wagtail can watch for flying insects passing by and jump off and catch them, but obviously that wouldn't work in winter.

Wagtails like short grass on which it is easy to run. Thrushes, which are larger and hop rather than run, can cope with longer, but not very long, grass. This Song Thrush was looking for worms on Buck Hill, where the grass is mown once or twice a year to keep it a medium length.

The pair of Egyptian Geese that are based on the grass around the Henry Moore sculpture also have a preferred round, which includes the Little Owls' chestnut tree, the Italian Garden and, here, the fallen horse chestnut in the Long Water.

It's easy to tell these birds apart from the others because the female, on the left here, was a white head with no eye patch.

On 22 December Jim n.L. (which stands for 'north London') reported seeing a Shoveller sending off a Mallard by jerking its large bill upwards at it. I was photographing some Shovellers circling near the Italian Garden when a Coot swam through the midst of them, and a female Shoveller made exactly that gesture at it, which you can see in the middle of this picture. It did indeed send the Coot scuttling away.

One of the brood of seven young Mute Swans was having a particularly vigorous wash.

At one point it managed to turn itself completely upside down.

You can often see geese doing this, but it must be difficult for this much larger bird.

Two Common Gulls were balancing on the line of buoys around the Lido swimming area and preening their wings.

The male Tawny Owl was reliably in his usual place on the nest tree.

Today marks the thousandth post on this blog, which started in April 2012 and has appeared every day since then, with a handful of extra posts when something unusual happened. I am very grateful to all the readers who have followed it so devotedly over the years. There has been little in the way of exciting discoveries of exotic species, but I hope that at least you have been able to follow the cycle of the seasons in a haven for wildlife in the middle of a vast city.

Otherwise it was an ordinary midwinter day, though it was lent a bit of distinction by the continued presence of the male Tawny Owl, perched in his favourite place on the nest tree. Over the 11 years he has spent in the park he has become famous, with people from abroad paying visits to admire him.

More recently celebrated are the pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull and his mate, who hit the national newspapers and even the radio a few months ago. Today, for the second time, I found them sharing a freshly caught fish, and I think that there can be no doubt that one of this resourceful pair caught it him or herself.

The crowded, noisy funfair next to their usual hunting ground may have made the Feral Pigeons more wary and mobile, and harder to catch. Anyway, it is clear that these gulls are well in control of their food supply.

The usual cast of characters turned up in their expected places. We couldn't have an anniversary without a picture of a Great Crested Grebe, so here is one fishing around the wire baskets of twigs next to the bridge.

The supply of fish in these baskets is getting low now, at least partly because of the attention of the Cormorants which have hoovered up everything they can find. This doesn't bother the grebes, which can find enough, and large enough, fish to keep them going. But most of the Cormorants have given up and gone back to the Thames.

Charlie the Carrion Crow was in the top of a tree overlooking the Italian Garden. Seeing me arrive, he called for his mate Melissa and young Kevin, and the three of them swooped down to demand peanuts.

The Jays were after peanuts too, and followed me around the leaf yard. Their black moustaches give a striking impression when seen from straight ahead.

A Ring-Necked Parakeet was also on the lookout while finishing off the last of a bunch of elderberries.

As usual in the leaf yard, a pair of Nuthatches arrived to take pine nuts off the railings ...

... and so did two of the Coal Tits.

But these Coal Tits are still not coming to my hand, and only the one next to the Rima relief is brave enough. They know that I will eventually put some pine nuts on the fence, because you can't say no to these charming tiny birds.

A submerged branch on the willow tree next to the bridge is constantly occupied by preening ducks. I have seen Tufted Ducks and Pochards using it, and here a Mallard has been attending to her feathers and is having a good stretch.

Birds have their habits. Here is a Black-Headed Gull with the ring number EX63673, which was put on by Roy Sanderson in November 2011.

The bird has returned to the same place on the north shore of the Serpentine every winter since then, and so have other birds ringed at the same time, EX63684, EX63686, EX 63609 and EX63610, all of which I have seen this year. Black-Headed Gulls can live to be over 30, so they may be returning for decades to come.

Great Crested Grebes are also creatures of habit: they like to rest in exactly the same spot. This one has been next to the floating baskets in front of the Dell restaurant for several weeks.

And this one has been beside the bows of the electric catamaran, which is moored for the winter next to the Serpentine Island.

Both places are convenient, offering some shelter from the wind and a chance to fish under the basket or the boat, where fish cluster in the shade.

The male Tawny Owl was also on his usual perch, but this is more than habit because the pair's nest in directly underneath inside the hollow trunk of the tree.

The usual Coal Tit turned up next to the Rima relief and called from a branch, reminding me to give it a pine nut.

There are hanging bird feeders here, and of course there are also squirrels. This feeder has its top secured by a simple clip which a squirrel can undo in a second. The only secure feeders are the ones where the hanging loop prevents the lid from being opened when it is in the upright position.

There were a lot of Shovellers just offshore from Peter Pan. Because Shovellers look slightly like Mallards, one tends to think of them as fairly large ducks, but as you can see from this picture of one next to a Tufted Duck, they are quite small -- about an inch longer than a Pochard and slightly slimmer in build.

There have been Dunnocks for years in the little patch of shrubs next to the entrance of the Lido bathing area, but these shy little birds are hard to see and normally there is just a momentary glimpse of a little brown bird vanishing under a bush. Today it spent a few seconds foraging under a bench and allowed itself to be photographed.

Just across the path, a pair of Pied Wagtails were again running around on the rubber mat on the Lido jetty. They are spending a lot of time here now, because some Egyptian Geese have been using it too, and their copious droppings attract insects which the wagtails pick out of the ridges in the matting.

As Greylag Goose with white-flecked plumage has been on the Serpentine for several months. It is considerably smaller than the others and rather scrawny, and is often by itself, as if the other Greylags don't accept it as one of them.

This is an absolutely unremarkable picture of a Grey Heron, except for one thing. I went past it on the path near Peter Pan, walked around the lake with various detours, and passed it again over two hours later. It was in exactly the same place in exactly the same position. It was waiting for an incautious rat in the shrubbery to forget that it was there, and wander close enough to be grabbed.

Another incident in the troubled life of a female Mallard: she was chased all over the Long Water by seven drakes with one thing on their mind.

The Shovellers on the Long Water were browsing next to a fallen poplar tree, under the gaze of a couple of Cormorants.

I was walking past this poplar when it fell, in a gale in the winter of 2011. Luckily it fell away from me, or I wouldn't be writing this blog.

There were four Jackdaws in front of Kensington Palace. Two of them came down to be fed, and had a lively time dodging the gulls. When they understand that you are trying to give them food, they lose their fear and come close, and don't mind you walking towards them.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual place, peacefully dozing.

The pigeon-eating Lesser Black-Backed Gull had caught a fish, or at least he had acquired it in some way. You can tell it's him by the deep yellow colour of his legs. He was beginning to eat it on the edge of the Serpentine near the Dell restaurant, and his mate was just arriving to share it with him.

An oblivious human lurched towards him, and he ran into the water, taking the fish with him. Then the familiar young Great Black-Backed Gull, visiting the lake today, swam up and took it away.

There was no fight. When one of these terrible great birds comes and takes your fish, you have to concede.

On the other side of the lake the blonde Egyptian Goose was stretching her wings.

She doesn't use them much. She was 50 yards from the place where she was hatched. I did once see her on the Round Pond, but she soon went back to her native region.

The elusive Little Grebe appeared briefly on the Long Water under the parapet of the Italian Garden.

A Goldfinch was picking seeds out of the fruit of an alder tree beside the Long Water.

Several Mistle Thrushes were looking for worms on Buck Hill, looking endearingly tall and gawky as they hopped around.

There were more on the Archery Field.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual station on top of the nest tree.

Nearby, just the other side of the neighboring beech tree, the branchless trunk of a dead tree had a large crop of Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus), growing all around and up the trunk.

These are edible, good, and expensive when bought from delicatessens.

There are now four Coal Tits visible in the leaf yard. Here is one of them making a cautious approach to the railings to collect a pine nut.

When I went to feed the other Coal Tit at the Rima relief, a pair of Blue Tits were bathing in the little shallow pool at the back at the enclosure.

Epstein's portrayal of Rima is a tribute to the naturalist and bestselling novelist W.H. Hudson. Rima is the heroine of his daft romance Green Mansions, a wild girl in the South American rainforest who speaks the language of birds. She wears more clothes in the book than here, having woven them herself out of spider webs. Setting that aside, I think that the very shallow pools at the relief were probably made deliberately to be a bathing and drinking place for small birds, and in that way commemorate Hudson's more serious role. The bird sanctuaries in the park -- here, beside the Long Water, and in the Dell -- were enclosed just after his death in 1922 as a further tribute, and very useful they have been.

The male Mute Swan on the Long Water was chasing his own offspring.

I don't think he is intending to kick them out yet, because when I went past Peter Pan again later he was sitting quite peacefully beside all seven of them. Probably one of them had done something to annoy this irascible bird.

This pair of Great Crested Grebes on the Long Water are not the same as the very dark pair one of whom was pictured yesterday, so there must be two pairs on the Long Water, both already in breeding plumage.

I am sure that there is only one pair on the Serpentine. It is normal for their numbers to dwindle in winter as some of them go to the Thames, and those that left will be back in the spring.

A couple of Pied Wagtails were running about on the new gravel-topped tarmac at the edge of the Round Pond, whose rough surface has now attracted enough tiny bugs to interest them. I can't see what it is they are finding here -- just tiny black specks.

The male Tawny Owl stayed in his tree all day, and when I went past a few minutes before sunset there were a lot of Jays and Magpies in the branches above the nest hole, screaming at him.

They gave up and left, and he emerged just as the last rays of the sun faded from the top of the tree.

Sad to say, another of the young Egyptian Geese has been killed by a dog illegally let loose by its stupid owner. Here are the remaining six with their parents, a picture taken while I was waiting for the owl to appear.

Allowing a dog to harass wildfowl is not just against the park regulations: it is a crime under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and incurs prosecution, a court appearance and a stiff fine. If you see anyone allowing their dog to do this, you are within your rights in photographing the incident and the owner's face and giving the pictures to the parks police, who take these crimes very seriously.

As a contrast to yesterday's picture of a Great Crested Grebe in pale winter plumage, here is one of the other pair, with a very full crest and extremely dark colouring. Even his white front has a brown tinge.

His mate is almost as dark. Grebes mate for life, so she is probably as old as he is, both or them darkening year by year.

A whirl of dead leaves near the Rima relief turned out to have a Magpie in the middle, which was tossing them about looking for insects underneath.

We haven't had a picture of a Great Tit for a while, so here is one in the leaf yard collecting a pine nut.

The three Green Woodpeckers were on the Archery Field again, next to the Kensington Palace railings because they were keeping their distance from a bunch of Magpies and Carrion Crows at the other end.

The Jackdaws were in front of Kensington Palace as usual.

Towards sunset a flock of Greylag Geese left the Round Pond, heading southwest, presumably bound for the river.

There are surprising number of Greylags on the Thames upstream of central London, including a permanent colony at St Mary's church in Battersea, which is on the edge of the river.

The male Tawny Owl was in his place on the nest tree, looking a bit windswept.

It is definitely not cherry blossom time, but this tree near the Italian Garden has been set off by a couple of mild days.