Hand feeding the Marsh Tits

It's always lovely to wander around Leighton Moss rspb at any tine of year and seems the woodland birds are getting reacquainted with human foot traffic again and taking food from their hand.  

Today we were enjoying feeding not only the robins, Great Tits and even Blue Tits from our hand but the always confiding Marsh Tits were joining in;   dainty little birds and often you hear their "Pit-choo"  call to let you know they are on their way !       Here's one coming to Mike's hand ,,,,,,,,,,,,

back several times but there were two of them ........   

they are such charming little birds   (my favourite pic)

  • Gaynor, the only place we have seen Marsh Tits is at Leighton Moss, thanks to Hazel, Mike and a few others from these threads meeting up at LM a few years ago and every year since apart from 2020.  Granted, not being any sort of twitchers, we have never gone anywhere especially to see them--it just happened that there are some at LM!  If you can join the next meet-up there (anytime in the last week of June and first day or two of July) you too can see them!  And now that Hazel and Mike are training them to sit on hands, perhaps you can experience that, too.

  • Lovely Hazel, what a joy to see, it must be awesome to experience. Glad you are enjoying your break away.

  • Thanks everyone,    the charming little Marsh Tits were around again today and joined by Great Tits  .................

    The lovely thing that happens at Leighton Moss is that you can share this hand feeding experience with other visitors to the reserve;    one lady said she was having the most fantastic day when she'd seen three otters and a pair of marsh harriers so I then asked if she would like to feed the great tit and marsh tit and placed some bird food in her hand which the birds then took ......   I said your day just got even better and we had a good laugh  -  further down the woodland pathway I was able to do the same with another visitor which brought absolute delight to them to have a bird feed from their hand.     These moments are a prime example of how nature helps during times of pandemic and stress and we can all share these experiences with one another.

  • Well said Hazy, and more fabulous photos to tempt me Ann with joining you all this year, I have noted the dates so beware everyone, as long as the ukulele diary doesn't fill up too much I might just travel.
  • Just bring the Uke along, Gaynor, and you can serenade the rest of us while we have lunch.
  • Ha, you will want to digest your food properly don't you!!!!
  • Ha, Ha, yourself, Gaynor--you cannot possibly be that bad!