Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

Blue Tit - Cyanistes caeruleus

Good light is probably the most important factor in bird photography, well that is my opinion anyway!. This morning we had bright sunshine for an hour or so, the first for a few days at that time of day. The area around my feeders has been adorned with good photogenic plants for the birds to hang on to before they come in to feed and this has been very successful and given me the opportunity to get some nice shots. At least that was the case this morning. If you are reading this and you are not too familiar with British and European birds, this is a Blue Tit, a very popular and well loved bird in the UK and recognised by almost everyone. You need to be very close to them to appreciate how exquisitely marked they are. They are not particularly easy to sex, but females are probably more subdued in colour. In the hand, in other words if they have been captured for ringing/banding the length of their wings is a sure way of separating the males from the females. Males have longer wings so any bird with wings over 65mm is a male and less than 63mm is a female. Incidentally they weigh an average of 9gms. Blue Tits are feisty, brave little birds with a real attitude and they will peck at you courageously when handled.

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The Coal Tit here is a good example of this species which is more subdued in colour with a slightly different shaped beak. They are sexually monomorphic, that is to say you can not visually determine the sex of the species even in the hand. They are a slightly smaller bird than the Blue Tit and 9 grms would be a fat bird, they are usually around 7 gms ...... yes as tiny as that! The most distinctive feature of their plumage is the large white patch at the base of the neck and absence of blue in the lumage.

This picture shows Dunnock posing well. As I said the other day, you can tell the age and maturity of a Dunnock by the deep chestnut colour of the eye. This shows really well in this picture

Tits in my garden

just a few of the tits from my garden this last week or so.

Blue Tit-Cyanistes caeruleus (close-up)

  Today has been an odd one in the garden. Windy and wet with bouts of sunshine here and there. We have had a few birds on the feeders, a single Coal Tit but oddly mostly Blue Tits today. This is a reverse of the trends over the last weeks. I also noticed a Great Tit and had a glimpse of the Blackcap male. I am suspecting that the windy/ rainy weather has had an effect on the way the birds have been feeding today. Dunnocks were noticeable and yet another quick visit by a pair of House Sparrows. I did get this nice Blue Tit photo early, my best garden Blue Tit image so far so that is a good result. This is from my new "sentry box" hide made from bamboo canes and a camo tarpaulin. It is very effective and I have it positioned literally 3 feet from the feeder but still tucked away and quite unobtrusive. It obviously has had no effect on the birds because they even perch on it before jumping quickly on to the food. As I stood in the garden later on there were a few Starling flying by. But all in all the quietest "bird" day in the garden for quite a while. I thought it would be interesting to compare the beaks of these different species of tit, they feed in the same way yet the Coal Tit has a more pointed beak than the Blue Tit.