Willow Tit

It is usual on our journeys north to have a stopover to try to find something different, this time Martin had come up with RSPB Fairburn Ings near Castleford in Yorkshire. The Willow Tits come to the feeders close by the visitor centre and as it would be a life tick for both of us we couldn't turn down the opportunity. So at 0500 we set off north for our week in Scotland and arrived at Fairburn sometime before 10:00 and I noted that our first Willow Tit was spotted by Martin at 10:04 - not bad.

The locals were somewhat puzzled by our antics, standing next to the feeders, cameras at the ready, they must have thought something good was about.. Several times we had to explain that we didn't have the bird in Sussex and that we were keen to record them. Additionally, there were plenty of Tree Sparrows, another bird scarce on our patch and the friendly Bullfinches visiting the feeders were something I hadn't witnessed before. The fact that we were ignoring a Smew elsewhere on the reserve compounded their amusement.

I don't like photographs of birds on feeders but this time I will have to make an exception as these birds were a bit quick - a raid on the feeder and then vanishing in a few seconds. Lots of receding bum and bare branch shots.

Before we left I studied the British Birds article on the "Separation of the Wiillow Tit and Marsh Tit in Britain"  and it basically boils down to song and bill markings. The Willow Tit has an unmarked upper mandible and the Marsh Tit has whitish marks on proximal area of upper mandible. Ha! - no matter - as we were reliably informed that there are no Marsh Tits in the vicinity and every bird on the reserve carries an individual ID. Simples.

Nice to meet Lee who put us on to the feeders next to a nearby viewing screen, at least we could sit down there and a constant stream of Tits, Reed Buntings, Greenfinches and the ever present Tree Sparrows coming to the liberal amount of feed, kept us entertained.

 

Great to visit another RSPB reserve where the staff are friendly, keen to help with location information and where the policy seems to be to get the birder close to the birds. Unfortunately our fixation on the Willow Tits meant that we were unable to visit other parts of the reserve but it is certainly one for the future, being ideally located adjacent to the A1.