Know your tits

[British Red]

A beautiful day today and the birds were storming the winter flowering cherry for peanuts and fat balls. A nice avriety of tits on show - but sadly the long tails elude my camera still

Blue



Great



Coal



Really want to get a nice one of a long tailed - I really like those little brutes!

Red

[JonnyP]

Nice one Red...I also want a decent shot of a long tailed tit...They are so damn active and don't sit still much. They are my favourite small bird and their nests are sommit special too..
Can you get a photo of a bearded tit please...

[British Red]

I'll do my best Jon - we get the long tails nest in that hedge by the outbuildings. We watched them on the nest last year - have you ever seen them go in? They fold their tail over their head and it sticks out

Very cute - amazing building too - I'll try to get a picc this year (I'm always worried they will desert the nest if I get too close so I'll go easy)

Red

[JonnyP]

I'll do my best Jon - we get the long tails nest in that hedge by the outbuildings. We watched them on the nest last year - have you ever seen them go in? They fold their tail over their head and it sticks out

Very cute - amazing building too - I'll try to get a picc this year (I'm always worried they will desert the nest if I get too close so I'll go easy)

Red

I have some photo's somewhere of LTT's going in and out the nest, carrying feathers to line it with..They wern't great shots though as I was a way off and it was in the woods. I heard from the warden that the magpies got to the nest and had the young...
I will have a looky for them, though they might be on print from my old slr..

[Aragorn]

lovelly pics red, proberbly some of our commonest birds, but i do love watching the little fella's

[andy_e]

LOL! I saw some long-tails when I was going back to work at lunchtime, beautiful.

[Barn Owl]

You know,
some reckon we've not much colour about our birds but I wish they'd think about the Blue Tit, I mean it's BLUE,what more exotic colour do you need!

[British Red]

Absolutely - blue tits are great. I love that cherry tree. There were spadgers, robins, green and bull finches (oh and chaffinches), woodpeckers all sorts today. Oh and blackbirds, wagtails plus the normal complement of pheasants that escaped "cock day" hoovering up the grass below. Who can say we don't have fantastic birds?

I wish I new what was singing in the dark last night though - must get my birdsong CD out and have a listen!

Red

[Barn Owl]

If it weren't for their tails Long Tailed Tits would be our smallest birds.
I mean body size and weight,not length.

[British Red]

Hmmmm so what is...?

I want to say firecrest but I'm likely wrong!

[bikething]

Hmmmm so what is...?

I want to say firecrest but I'm likely wrong!

I thought it was a firecrest - tiny little things

[Barn Owl]

Goldcrest,c.5 grams.
Tom.

[Tony]

We've got some lovely birds here, in fact we have long tailed outside right now, they came for the first time a few days ago,about a dozen of them, starling has just arrived and there's a robin, no, two robins.

In the garden we usually (and a couple of now and thens) get Blue, great, longtail, robins, finches, crows, blackbirds, ravens, thrush, pheasant, magpie, buzzard, redkite, magpie, pigeon, wren, wagtails, sparrow. I have to say that this is the first time in my life that i've actually appreciated the little birds, they're lovely to watch....ahh, magpie just landed on the fence and the others are off!

Thanks for the pictures

[British Red]

Its a funny thing with birds - I find it the same as trees or plants - you ahve to learn a little then they become interesting and you want to learn more. For a long time in my life, wild plants were just a mass of green stuff but I'm just getting over the knowledge barrier to start enjoying recognising some. Same with birds really - I love seeing them and photographing them and take real pleasure now knowing which are what and a little about how they live

I'm delighted to see I even photographed a goldcrest in Wales last summer (I have a feeling it was JonnyP who told me about that family being smaller than wrens). Funny how the knowledge sticks



Red

[jasons]

I do enjoy looking at titssorry I will get my coat

[litefoot]

I`m fond of a nice pair myself.
Liteffot.

[leon-1]

I have some piccies of long tails about somewhere red. if I had known you were after one then I would of popped of a couple of shots Friday morning as we had a couple in then followed by the usual following of great's, blue's and to finish it off a coal tit.

Today we had a blackcap in the garden which was an unusal visitor (it's the first time I have seen one in this garden) as was the greenfinch and the bull finches the other week.

[British Red]

Thanks Leon,

We have loads of them about but its more getting a good photo that I want to do if you know what I mean? I like to try to photograph the things I see - although some (like the long tails) are easier to see than get a good clear photo.

It gets to be a "quest"

Red

[Toddy]

Beautiful photos

The long tails are insect eaters but they love the fat/insect crumble stuff for feeders. There's a little flock of them come swirling into the garden and there always seem to be two or three on guard while the rest feed. They huddle together like tight packed notes on a scale when it gets cold.

cheers
Toddy

[British Red]

Hmmm reckon they would go for mealworms? Gotta bag me a longtail

[Matt Weir]

Thanks dad, they are really superb

[leon-1]

Thanks Leon,

We have loads of them about but its more getting a good photo that I want to do if you know what I mean? I like to try to photograph the things I see - although some (like the long tails) are easier to see than get a good clear photo.

It gets to be a "quest"

Red

No problems mate. As you know they are one of my favourite garden visitors so it wouldn't have been any hassle apart from of course as you say getting that one decent shot.

[WilS]

Lovely pictures there. Long-taileds are one of my favourites too, see them regularly, but never seen a bearded. Maybe one day. Still, plenty of goldcrests around here too, so can't grumble, eh.

[British Red]

Bought some insect fat mix today Toddy - we'll see where it gets me

If I get a nice photo, you win a bottle of firewine!

Red

[spamel]

I've never seen a long tail, nor a cuckoo. The cuckoo is a bird I would really like to see in the wild.

[British Red]

Does my garden count? Poor blackbird got landed with one two years ago - chick was bigger than him! Got some pictures somewhere. Boring looking brown job really...

[JonnyP]

This took some finding. It was taken on my old slr, but instead of prints, I had a cd of the photo's made. I then forgot about it...
Anyway, like I said, not the best of shots, but you can see the nest and how well camoflauged it is, and also see a LTT with a feather in its mouth for lining the nest... I dunno where they were getting the feathers from but they kept comming back with those white feathers time after time...



This is about the best shot of a LTT I have....

[Jodie]

I saw a wren today - tiny wee thing

[British Red]

Stunning - thanks Jon - really made me smile

[Ben_Hillwalker]

The long-tails are talkative little chaps as well. They're constantly calling to each other in their winter groups. They have "tuck-tuck" and "tsirrup" calls when together, but when they are away from the main group they have a sharper "tsi-tsi-tsi" call.

I know, I know, I'm a birding anorak. But stuff like this interests me.