Monday 5 January 2015

And counting

Over the last few days we've had long-tailed tits coming to one of the bird feeders. They come early in the morning to a little cage feeder that has fat balls in, taking it in turns to chip off tiny fragments of food.

It's all done in a very wary way. One bird sits close by keeping watch while another feeds and then they swap places; if other birds turn up they fly off to safety - even if that bird is only a blue tit.
The visits are something new. I've seen LTTs in the garden plenty of times before, but never so close to the house.
So, I've decided to resurrect my garden bird list and honour the LTTs by making them the first entry. The only question is, what rules I should set myself for my list?
Obviously, a bird in the garden should go on the list. But how about one flying over? And if I see a bird on the far side of the valley should that count?