Long-tailed tits - first time sighting

Morning Sparrow and well done for spotting the LTT's,    a lot of the Community Members on here have seen an increase in LTT's and they come into our garden every day, there are six of them but sometimes you only see only one on it's lonesome.    The other must be around as they tend to flock together but I agree, they are the most charming of little birds and I can't see enough of them :)

First sightings of any bird in the garden is always exciting, we tend to get LTT's who just smash and grab and move on

It's always a red letter day when one sees a group of LTTs. I don't think I've ever just seen a pair - it's always been a little family. And they never stay still for a second. They noisily flit from bush to tree and are off to the next spot and out of sight within five minutes or less. I've seen them on a few occasions when out walking, and a couple of times a little group has deigned to stop off briefly in my mother's garden in Poole.

I chose to do my Big Garden Birdwatch this year in the Recreation Ground at the end of my road (having had a disastrous time last year with my own back garden, and not being allowed, as far as I could see, to stake out my mother's garden, a much more fruitful area). This proved an interesting hour, though I spent far too long watching the 120+ blackheaded gulls (and at least 3 common gulls) 40+ starlings and 20 pied wagtails feeding on the waterlogged sports pitches and being constantly disturbed by dogs to allow enough time for the bushes round the edge of the ground. Much to my amazement and delight, a little family group of LTT came darting through the trees above the path, bustled chattily around for about a minute, enabling me to get a fix and definite identification of one of them with my bins, and were off elsewhere again in no time. I had as much difficulty counting them as I did with the gulls and starlings. The bally things won't stay still for a moment. I guessed at 7, but it could have been 6 or 8.

BTW, several regular dog walkers, seeing what I was up to, approached me to tell me about the really interesting and unusual birds which had visited the park to feed on the grass the previous weekend, when it had been cold and frosty - and I had been on holiday in Somerset! Unfortunately, that didn't count because a) it was the wrong weekend b)it wasn't me seeing them and c) they hadn't a clue what the birds were and nor had I. From the very vague description and their responses to my suggestions and questions all I gathered was that they were about the size of starlings and they weren't lapwings, since they didn't have crests. Any bright ideas?

they are lovely

we have a little gang of about 9 of them who live in the garden. They are quite bold and will sit in the tree where the bird feeders are and watch while I fill up the feeders and move in the minute I go back indoors. I have never seen them before I lived before I moved here.