Mini Twitch for Penduline Tits.
07th January 2022
After a pleasant festive period - despite the horrible weather, it’s back down to earth so to speak. Everywhere is totally sodden after what seemed an interminable period of grey skies and rain. The land is soft and very muddy with pools of lying water making walking very unpleasant. The small ‘B’ roads are also a mess with run off from the muddy fields. However, you have to plough on and make the best of it, so having seen reports of three Penduline Tits in Somerset Susan and I decided to go for a little ‘Twitch’ to try and get them. We don’t twitch much these days but the odd one is still a nice fun day out. The birds had been seen in Weston Super Mare which is about eighty miles from where we live, about ninety minutes away and easily accessible by main roads. The weather forecast was reasonable for Wednesday so we packed the kit in the car the night before and left early. The weather, contrary to the forecast was awful when we left – mist and heavy rain. However, as we travelled towards Raglan on the A40 it cleared to a lovely sunrise.
Arriving on time we found our way to the old disused ‘Weston Airfield’ where the birds were reportedly being seen. As we made our way to some extensive reedbeds there were a small number of birders present and the birds were indeed showing, but just as we arrived they flew off high and wide. This is what happens sometimes but we’ve learned over the years not to panic because birds like these tend to return to the best feeding area sooner or later. Some of the birders went further up the track to look for them but we stayed put because there was a good number of reedmace heads there and that is their favourite food in winter.
It was bitingly cold with a nasty wind blowing continuously and we had to endure this for a good hour. Finally we could see the birds making their way back to their previous feeding area and you can tell where they are by the amount of mace blowing about in the wind as they strip the plant to look for the seeds inside.
I then signalled to the birders further up the track and they made a hasty return.
Fortunately Penduline Tits are not too shy, within reason, and we were able to get some great views of these lovely charismatic little birds. They have always been difficult to see in the UK and in years gone by in order to have a reasonable chance of seeing them birders would have had to travel to the south east of England. However, this is a bird that should start to be seen further north as their breeding range is expanding because of climate change. We have seen them at their nest sites on the near continent, but only sporadically in the winter in the UK.
The males have a more extensive black mask than the females and are also more rufous coloured.
Three birds performed in front of us for about an hour affording great views of their behaviour and also allowing me to take a few decent shots.
The only downside was the nagging bitter wind which at times was blowing the reeds like windscreen wipers, but this was a small price to pay.
After some hot coffee and a sandwich in the car we left contented and in plenty of time to get back home before the M5 rush hour started – a good day out!
Please click link below for some short video footage of these lovely birds.
https://youtu.be/Np4baGcS_1I
For more please see 'Latest Images' Penduline Tits Portfolio on the front page of this site.
Arriving on time we found our way to the old disused ‘Weston Airfield’ where the birds were reportedly being seen. As we made our way to some extensive reedbeds there were a small number of birders present and the birds were indeed showing, but just as we arrived they flew off high and wide. This is what happens sometimes but we’ve learned over the years not to panic because birds like these tend to return to the best feeding area sooner or later. Some of the birders went further up the track to look for them but we stayed put because there was a good number of reedmace heads there and that is their favourite food in winter.
It was bitingly cold with a nasty wind blowing continuously and we had to endure this for a good hour. Finally we could see the birds making their way back to their previous feeding area and you can tell where they are by the amount of mace blowing about in the wind as they strip the plant to look for the seeds inside.
I then signalled to the birders further up the track and they made a hasty return.
Fortunately Penduline Tits are not too shy, within reason, and we were able to get some great views of these lovely charismatic little birds. They have always been difficult to see in the UK and in years gone by in order to have a reasonable chance of seeing them birders would have had to travel to the south east of England. However, this is a bird that should start to be seen further north as their breeding range is expanding because of climate change. We have seen them at their nest sites on the near continent, but only sporadically in the winter in the UK.
The males have a more extensive black mask than the females and are also more rufous coloured.
Three birds performed in front of us for about an hour affording great views of their behaviour and also allowing me to take a few decent shots.
The only downside was the nagging bitter wind which at times was blowing the reeds like windscreen wipers, but this was a small price to pay.
After some hot coffee and a sandwich in the car we left contented and in plenty of time to get back home before the M5 rush hour started – a good day out!
Please click link below for some short video footage of these lovely birds.
https://youtu.be/Np4baGcS_1I
For more please see 'Latest Images' Penduline Tits Portfolio on the front page of this site.