Willow Tit

 

Willow Tit, a rare bird for me as we don't get them in Sussex. I was staying up in Derbyshire with the family for a few days and with a rainy wet morning, the others were either off swimming or having a lie in, so I headed over to Carsington Water to see what birds were about. The target was the Willow Tit which e-bird said had been reported from around Stones Island on the reservoir.

After a couple of hours wandering around in the rain I had seen plenty of birds but had little in the way of pictures to show for the effort. A distant Tree Sparrow eventually gave itself up for a picture but on checking it later my initial reaction was to delete it. Mist, dull light and high ISO had given an image that was barely recognisable. Second thoughts when I got home and half an hour playing around with Photoshop eventually gave me a recognisable, if disappointing image.

Tree Sparrow

Still it was worth recording, my last sighting was at Bolderwall Farm Dungeness in 2019.

No sign of the Willow Tits so I retired to the bird hide adjacent to Horseshoe Island to eat my breakfast. It had a couple of feeders with various tits and finches dropping in to feed. I don't like taking pictures of birds on feeders but with a chance of the Willow Tit it was worth getting the camera ready.

Nothing unusual for thirty minutes or so but as I was getting ready to leave a bird dropped in that looked promising. I managed to snap a few quick pictures and it was gone. 

The trouble with photographing birds is that you don't really look at the bird, you are so focussed on taking the picture that you don't see the detail. Once it had flown I realised that I didn't know if it was a Willow Tit or a Marsh Tit. 

Willow Tit

Fortunately a couple of the pictures gave a clear view of the bill with no white spot on the upper mandible and with a face pattern and a pale wing patch that strongly suggested the Willow Tit. I didn't hear it call but I did have the Merlin App recording and it was showing Willow Tit confirming the sighting.

Willow Tit

So a miserable wet morning had turned into a successful birding session, my first Tree Sparrow for four years and then my first Willow Tit since 2016 at Fairburn Ings.

I also had good views of Dippers on the River Dovey but unfortunately was travelling light that day and had left my camera at home. Three birds I do not get to see in Sussex, I will have to visit the area again.

Willow Tit

Dave and I have just got back from a weeks birding in the Cairngorm National Park and on the Moray and Nairn coast, but more on that in the next blog. This one is about our stopover on the way up at RSPB Fairburn Ings. We chose the site as it has resident Willow Tits. They are absent from Sussex and most of the South East and, if seen, would be a life tick for both of us.

I think we could probably have told the difference between the Willow Tit and its look alike the Marsh Tit but the beauty of Fairburn Ings is that it has no Marsh Tits. It is always good to have the odds working in your favour.

Fairburn Ings is a great site and just a few minutes from the A1. The wardens gave us some useful information and we found our first Willow Tit within a few minutes of arriving.

Willow Tit

They were very difficult to get onto in the trees and picture opportunities were limited, so in the end I resorted to photographing them on the feeders. There was no way I was going to leave without a definitive picture.

Identification of the Willow Tit is now done either by the call or by the absence of a white spot on the base of the upper mandible. However, the birds shown here do seem to show other characteristics that aid the separation from the Marsh Tit. That is, dull rather than glossy black cap, larger black bib, and thicker "bull" neck.

Willow Tit in the bag on the first day, a great start to the holiday.

The reserve also supported nesting Tree Sparrows, another species mostly absent from Sussex, a good number of Bullfinches, and gave close up views of some of the more common birds.

Tree Sparrows

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

Reed Bunting

Goldfinch

It may be a case of the grass always being greener but it seems to us that the RSPB sites in the north of England are far better at getting birders close to the birds. Fairburn Ings was no exception and it is a place I will be visiting again.