Two Great Spotted Woodpeckers were seen in the leaf yard yesterday, and one of them reappeared today. It is too early for them to be drumming, which of course makes them much easier to find.

There were several Starlings in the leaf yard. Most of them spend their time at the Round Pond or in Hyde Park, but enough turn up here to make feeding the tits difficult. You don't want a Starling dive-bombing your hand with its painfully sharp beak. But they have wonderful iridescent plumage.

The Scaup is still in the park: Tony Duckett spotted him yesterday on the Serpentine, where he had gone to escape the ice on the Round Pond. I thought I saw him distantly on the Round Pond this morning, but when I hurried round to the other side I couldn't find him, so he could be anywhere now.

While I was looking for him, I was pursued round the pond by four Jackdaws, which are now getting very pushy and stand in front of you staring with their bright eyes until you feed them.

Two young Herring Gulls were chasing each other over the Serpentine.

On the Long Water, one of the Little Grebes was fishing under the dead willow tree near the Italian Garden. It came out from among the twigs for a brief moment before diving.

A flock of Long-Tailed Tits, with a few Blue Tits tagging along with them, swept through the trees north of the Orangery.

The pair of Coal Tits at the Rima relief are now coming out when they see me arriving, and calling to make sure that I notice and feed them.

The male Tawny Owl wasn't there when I first went by this morning, but fortunately came out later and started preening.

There had been a hard frost last night, and both lakes and the Round Pond had ice on them. This Mallard was at Peter Pan, where there was no clear water.

However, there was an unfrozen area on the far side of the Long Water, and the whole family of Mute Swans came down it to see what was going on around their nest area -- the workmen have still not returned. The swans can't get to their new island at the moment because it is surrounded by ice.

The people from Bluebird boats had started up the electric boat and were circling on the Serpentine to clear an area of ice. However, this Coot and Tufted Duck had their own icebreaker, a large male swan which they were following closely.

The Round Pond was three-quarters frozen, and the Scaup had left. It may be elsewhere in the park, but I couldn't find it.

The Great Crested Grebes are always wary of being iced in and leave for the river if there is a danger of it. However, they were all still here today -- six on the Long Water, two on the Serpentine -- and perhaps they sense that the weather will warm a little during the next few days. This one had been fishing under the ice near the Serpentine island, and was having a preen and a flap.

The three Canada-Greylag hybrid geese, not seen for a while, were back on the Serpentine. They always keep together and are certainly siblings, although they don't look much alike. The one on the left has an intensely speckled head and a speckled body. The middle one has a pattern quite like its Canada father. And the one on the right is intermediate.

Charlie and Melissa the Carrion Crows followed me all the way from the Round Pond to Rima, demanding peanuts. This is Melissa on the fence in front of Rima. Her feet are paler than Charlie's.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual place enjoying the sunshine after a freezing night.

Here is a picture of a Robin in the leaf yard, for no reason except that Robins are beautiful.

The killer Lesser Black-Backed Gull was trying a new hunting technique. It walked down to the bottom of the sloping roof of the Dell restaurant and tried to creep up on a line of Feral Pigeons perched on the edge of the roof and looking away. As soon as the gull neared the edge there was an explosion of pigeons, and it didn't catch one this time. But it is interesting to see how inventive this hungry bird is in hunting an agile prey that even Peregrines have some trouble catching.

 On the Archery Field, some Herring Gulls were using the well tried technique of dancing to bring up worms.

It seems strange that Lesser Black-Backed Gulls haven't learnt this trick, but I have never seen one dancing.

Two Black-Headed Gulls were performing their curious display of holding their wings akimbo and mewing at each other. I think it is a ritual of rivalry, an attempt to establish dominance, rather than a display between mates, as it usually results in one of the gulls flying away.

The workmen in the Long Water have not done anything for two days, but their equipment is still in the lake. Now that things are quiet, all the usual birds have come back, and this Great Crested Grebe was looking for fish amid the floating debris of reeds and twigs.

Apparently Tony Duckett wants to build a stretch of stone wall along part of the Long Water to attract wading birds, but this ambitious plan is still waiting for the go-ahead. The old tern raft, which never attracted a tern, has been removed and a new and better one is being built.

The Scaup is still on the Round Pond. He is diving busily, is not shy of people on the shore, and seems to have settled in.

Grey Herons are not diving birds, so this one was scrupulously obeying the regulations. They can swim if they have do, but it is an awkward performance.

Two Nuthatches were waiting for me in the leaf yard.

And the male Tawny Owl was in his usual place on the horse chestnut tree, enjoying a sunny spell.

This odd little assorted fishing party of two Cormorants and a Grey Heron has been grouped on the Serpentine island for several days. The two species don't bother each other because each has a completely different fishing technique, so they don't get in each other's way.

Cormorants do chase Great Crested Grebes away, however, because they are both diving birds and therefore rivals. This grebe on the Serpentine is carefully preening his flight feathers -- the white secondaries on the forearm joint of his wing.

The Scaup on the Round Pond came right in to the edge and examined the shoreline to see if there was anything edible. There was nothing it liked, so it swam away again.

The muddy debris left by the works on the Long Water has attracted several Mallards and Moorhens, which comb through it looking for insects and worms.

The debris of the funfair in Hyde Park has now been fenced off, and should attract some birds looking for the same things, though it may take a couple of days before they realise that the area is free of humans. I walked round it and didn't see anything more exciting than a few Pied Wagtails flying over.

At the east end of the Serpentine, a Magpie was perched in a cherry tree which was just coming into blossom.

Yes, I know it's a winter-flowering cherry, but it's still a hopeful sign on a cold dank grey day.

A Wren was poking around in the leaf litter on the edge of the Diana playground.

Not far away, a Carrion Crow had fished an attractively fragrant nougat packet out of a waste bin and was disappointed that there was no nougat left in it.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual tree. In spite of four people milling around underneath, talking and taking pictures, he didn't wake up.

The Round Pond had partly frozen, but this didn't bother the Scaup who, being only a few months old, may never have seen ice before. He has been here for a week now.

There was also ice on the Long Water. This causes any Little Grebes on the lake to move down to the dead willow tree near the Italian Garden, which is next to the borehole that feeds the lake. Water emerges from this at the steady 10°C of underground, so the area never freezes even in the coldest weather. There were two Little Grebes fishing here, and one of them caught a fish. They have probably been on the lake all this time unnoticed. They were very hard to see among the mossy twigs, and this is the only clear shot I got of either of them.

When I arrived in the Italian Garden there were two Cormorants fishing under the balustrade. As soon as they saw me they panicked and rushed up the lake. Our visiting Cormorants don't like people coming to close to them, but they are not usually as shy as that.

At the east end of the Serpentine, the local pair of Great Crested Grebes had been fishing on either side of the floating baskets. They had not seen each other for at least ten minutes, so when one of them swam under the basket and surfaced in sight of her mate, they needed to have a proper greeting ceremony. These elaborate courtesies help to keep grebe couples together for life.

There were a great many Magpies on the Archery Field. Here are ten of them.

One of the Nuthatches was singing in a tree near the leaf yard. He followed me to collect some food from the railings.

So did one of the Coal Tits.

The male Tawny Owl was in his usual place, restless and preening and scratching himself. He has a long vigil ahead of him and a lot of hunting to do, as it takes over two months from laying eggs to the time that the owlets emerge from their tree, and both his mate and the owlets need food brought to them.

Virginia Grey told me that she had found a dead Blackbird with a ring from Stavanger in Norway. There are a lot of migrant Blackbirds and other thrushes from mainland Europe in the park at the moment, though we are a bit short of Redwings and Fieldfares.

A Cormorant was looking its shining best in the sunshine on the fallen horse chestnut tree in the Long Water.

The sun had also made a couple of Feral Rock Doves feel that spring was on its way.

There was a dense crows of Shovellers milling around on the Long Water near the Vista. I was doing my monthly bird count today and found 34 Shovellers in the whole park, but I think there were more under the bushes at the sides of the Long Water.

A Pied Wagtail was running around on the lead roof of the Orangery.

A Treecreeper was running up a large oak tree in the leaf yard, wonderfully camouflaged and only visible because it was moving.

You would think that its brilliant white belly would make it conspicuous, but in fact it adds to the effect by breaking up the outline of the bird.

The male Tawny Owl was guarding the nest as usual. When he heard me and another photographer talking under his tree, he sleepily opened one eye for a moment. But he is used to being the object of human attention, and soon went back to sleep.

The Scaup was back on the Round Pond, here seen at sunset beside a female Tufted Duck. He disappeared again in the early afternoon and didn't come back for several hours. Yesterday morning, after he had been disturbed by the model yachts, he was seen flying in the direction of the Long Water, so evidently he knows his way around the park.

This Song Thrush was singing loudly just after sunset at Queen's Gate.

A pair of Mandarins, which have not been seen for some time, appeared on the edge of the Long Water opposite Peter Pan. As soon as they came out of the bushes they were attacked by a Black-Headed Gull for no visible reason. The gull kept flying and pecking at them so that they had to dive, and they eventually retreated into the undergrowth again.

The debris of broken reeds left by the works on the Long Water had attracted some Canada Geese which were apparently eating the fragments.

These didn't seem appetising, but who can predict the tastes of geese? Under the willow near the bridge, a Greylag was chewing a tree root, maybe trying to scrape algae off it.

On the Serpentine, two Shoveller drakes had abandoned their shovelling and come in to the edge to eat algae off the concrete.

Near the island, two young Mute Swans were washing. They had turned it into a game and were rushing around in all directions flapping wildly. It was pleasing to see these gloomy and savage birds having fun for a change.

This is one of the pair of Great Crested Grebes last photographed on Thursday at the east end of the Serpentine. Then it was completely in winter plumage. Now it is beginning to grow the neck ruff that is part of a grebe's summer finery.

The male Tawny Owl was on his usual station guarding the pair's nest.

The Scaup was reported on the Round Pond this morning at 10.30, by David Lindo. But when I went there two hours later it was nowhere to be seen, despite much checking all over the pond with binoculars. At this time there were a lot of large radio-controlled model yachts sailing around. The resident birds are used to these, but perhaps the Scaup was scared, and scarpered.

However, the visit was not in vain, because two Jackdaws came over to be given bits of digestive biscuit, and one of them posed elegantly on a railing.