Bumbarrels
I can hear the Bumbarrels calling. There’s a distinctive contact call which they use as family groups move from tree to tree. …
The eggs have hatched
Last year I was disappointed when the two Long-Tailed Tits nests I found were also found by predators. That meant there was …
Admit it
You’re just a little bit in love with Long-Tailed Bushtits, aren’t you?
Fuzzy pink lollipops
Long-Tailed Tits are one of our most loved garden birds. They are tiny, busy, social visitors to urban gardens and country hedges. …
Long-Tailed Bushtits in blossom
The Long-Tailed Bushtits are still trailing in large caravans across the countryside, making desperate dashes between cover in family groups. Their contact …
Bumbarrels on parade
There’s a small group of Long-Tailed Bushtits calling overhead. They’re vibrating a ‘Tseee-Tseee’ call amongst the empty branches as they move through. …
2020 highlights of a wilder Devon life
2020 is a year which will be difficult to forget for those of us lucky enough to still be alive. For me, …
Return to the Long-Tailed Bushtits
You may have read my blogs about the Long-Tailed Bushtit family which took up a week of my life. Once they fledge …
Babies!
I was recently informed on Facebook (if that’s even possible) that young birds are called chicks and not babies. Someone responded with …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Eight
I only have a snatched hour with the Long-Tailed Bushtits today. I still get some lovely views. I’ve been trying to get …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Seven
Today the Long-Tailed Bushtits are working as hard as ever to gather invertebrates: After a week I’m much happier with my photographs …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Six
Here’s the scene next to a busy public footpath: It may appear tranquil but deep within the brambles is a Long-Tailed Bushtit’s …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Five
The caterpillars keep on coming. Beak-fulls of them. Green ones, brown ones, grey ones and orange ones; they’ve all been carefully plucked …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Four
It’s Day Four of photographing Long-Tailed Bushtits for me. After all, what is there to do when I’ve got no work and …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Three
It’s Day Three of following the Long-Tail Bushtit family on waste ground near my house in South Devon. I say ‘waste ground’ …
The Caterpillar Service – Day Two
Yesterday I spent five hours on a public footpath overlooking a Long-Tailed Bushtits’ nest. I’m happy that I wasn’t disturbing them. They’re …
The Caterpillar Service – Day One
The call of the Long-Tailed Bushtit is quite distinctive. It must be, because even I can recognise it. ‘Tsurp’, they say, to …
Return to Daisy Nook
In a time before the lockdown I visited Daisy Nook Country Park. It’s in Failsworth, which is a great place to have …
Making the bed
There’s a pair of Long-Tailed Bushtits at Stover Country Park. They’re busy making a nest in a Gorse bush next to the …
Travelling family
There’s a Long-Tailed Bushtit family moving through. I can hear them calling their strange ‘Zeee’ contact call overhead. Aren’t they fabulous? Everyone …
A short tale about a long tail
The Long Tailed Tit’s name is misleading. Just because its name is ‘tit’ people  always assume that it’s related to the Blue …
Long-Tailed Bushtits
It’s raining and the weather is dull. It’s not great light for photography, but it is great light for observation. These Long-Tailed …
The First Ladybird Book of British Birds – #5 The Long-tailed Tit
Turning to the next page in this 1950s Ladybird book shows the Long-tailed Tit: I prefer to call them Long-Tailed Bushtits because …
A flock of Long-Tailed Bushtits just passing through.
There’s a flock of Long-Tailed Bushtits just passing through. They are just like fuzzy lollipops. I like the detail of the bright …
Long Tailed Bushtits in the bushes
I’m looking over the beautiful green treetops and palm-tops in Parco Villa Gregoriana in Tivoli: There’s a flock of Long Tailed Tits …
A family of Long-Tailed Bushtits
I’m so familiar with the call of Long-Tailed Tits, or Long-Tailed Bushtits as I prefer to call them, that I hardly look …
Long-Tailed Tits – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
I love the description of Long-Tailed Tits that I wrote in my nature notebooks forty years ago: They really are a very …