Garden wildlife – Part 3 Long tailed tit

Another sunny, warm (ish) day in the garden today.

Plenty of things to see, from butterflies including a Brimstone and a couple of Peacocks

Overhead the Buzzards and Red Kites were riding the thermals, and over the fence I could see two Kestrels following each other from tree to tree.

The air seemed alive with honeybees especially around the flowering currant bush.

The sparrows were particularly active, starting to investigate different trees and hedges rather than the two main ones they have been roosting in over the winter.

Out in the front garden, the feeders have been busy. Not as many long tailed tits around, but there are still a couple visiting.

• Long tailed tits are 14cm from head to tail, 8g in weight, with a wingspan of 16-19cm
• They have an average lifespan of 2 years
• Their main source of food is insects, but they do love suet from feeders.
• Their nest is made from spider webs woven in to a ball with feathers, lichen and moss.
• Long tailed tits go around in small flocks of about 20 birds, constantly calling to each other.
• The flock tends to be made up of close relatives.
• Long tailed tits nests often fail, if this happens they don’t try again but help out at other nests that have been successful.
• There are plenty of alternative names for these birds, Long-tailed Pie, Mumruffin, Bottle Tit, Bum Barrel, Bum Towel, Oven Bird, poke pudding, huggen-muffin, juffit, fuffit, and flying lollipop.