Generally speaking, blue tits are pleasant garden birds that you tend to overlook when something more interesting comes along. However, I have now found myself in the position of placing the blue tit in the ‘something more interesting’ category. I live on the outskirts of Nottingham City Centre, in Sherwood to be precise (not actually near the forest of Robin Hood fame, that's about 20 miles up the road) and right off one of the main roads into the city. There are very few trees in the immediate vicinity, where back yards predominate over gardens. On my little street all my neighbours have been steadily renovating their tiny front gardens into something more manageable. This involves removing the few trees and decent sized shrubs in favour of hard landscaping and pots of petunias.
I do have a bird feeder, but its only customer is a fat woodpigeon. There are sparrows nesting nearby and pied wagtails often cheep overhead, but that's pretty much my lot. So imagine my surprise that whilst hanging my washing out, I hearing the sweet yet monotonous calls of blue tits. I am even more surprised to realise they are no more than 3 metres away from my in next doors back yard, hanging around in whatever large leggy plant is growing wild from under the decking. Its a small family group with recently fledged young still begging for food. I stand in amazement that after nearly four years of living in my house this is the first sighting of a blue tit. So much about wildlife watching (bird watching in particular) is about the rare and the extraordinary. Its nice to be reminded of the simple pleasure of seeing the ordinary in unexpected places.
*disclaimer – OK, so I haven’t managed to get a shot of the blue tits at mine yet. So enjoy this image taken in my parents back garden in Yorkshire!
