A four tit day

The Safari was thwarted by the weather this morning. we had hoped to get out and about but by the time we were ready to rumble a solid wall of heavy drizzle had arrived...and we weren't going out in that, how disappointing. So in the gloom we set about a few jobs round Base camp whilst keeping an eye on the feeders and the weather. Before too long a pair of Long Tailed Tits arrived. Not the worlds best pic but we put it in as proof for our marine biologist friend DB as we were chatting yesterday about Lotties in the garden.

Taken at full zoom without the telephoto through the rather dirty and wet kitchen window.

The feeder situation is rather interesting in that we have changed supplier back to good old Wilkinsons for  our sunny seeds from Pets at Home. 

The birds deffo prefer the ones from Wilkies, maybe they smell better or they can detect a higher fat content. 

Anyhow the mesh feeder took ages to go down with PaH sunnies but was the favoured feeder today even over the standard tube with portholes filled with the same seeds. Only three of the four Greenfinches that arrived with a solitary Goldfinch used the porthole feeder, the Goldfinch was on the mesh with the other Greenfinch.

As there was a bit of activity we put the big lens on but it was a bit too dark

After lunch, by which time we had other jobs to attend to and it was too late to go out the flamin sun came out!!! Isn't that always the way! We got a few minutes outside without the telephoto - what a difference a slightly shorter distance and no window combined with a bit of light makes.

With Long Tailed Tits, Great Tits and Blue Tits in the bag we were quite surprised to see a Coal Tit appear and grab a sunny seed. Whilst on the phone to the Rangers, who had seen a Red Admiral today, we saw two Coal Tits do a lightening fast raid on the feeders - very nice; paired up already and probably going to nest in the park again. It's not often we get a four tit day!

Other garden spots included two Blackbirds and a Collared Dove, and an unseen singing Dunnock was heard from a nearby garden, along with a slightly less welcome visitor a queen Wasp, hope she's not thinking about making a nest in the garage.

The pleasant afternoon sunshine brought out a flurry of Winter Gnats dancing over the pond, wonder if there'll be any Frogs in there to night; again the Rangers had seen Frogs, Toads and a trodden on Smooth Newt this morning.

Where to next? A full day's safari with a difference tomorrow but you wont get to hear of all our exciting stuff until Sunday.

In the meantime let us know if the weather was against you in your outback.

Cute pics of last weekend's Ring Tailed Possums can be found here...all say aaahhhhh...

And Monika is racing into a very commanding lead in our year list challenge...all say aaarrrggghhh...it's a wonder her notebook is big enough to put all those new species in!