Thursday 17 May 2018

Long Tailed Tits

 There are two pairs of long tailed tits nesting just beyond the boundaries of our garden.  They visit the Fat Balls regularly to feed.
 Recently they have been flying for insects on the wing, above the tall shrubs at the garden boundary.  They will hover upwards, like lethargic humming birds and snatch insect prey.  Today they seem to be taking large black and yellow banded insects, which I suspect are small wasps.  The bodies are too fat to be hover-flies when the images are magnified, but the pixilation is too rough to see exactly what they are.
 With a 300mm hand held lens at 30m away, it is difficult to get a good focus on such small and fast moving birds.  I am finding that 1 in 5 pictures are in focus.
It is delightful to see such birds doing well.  They only generally hunt like this when they have young to feed.  No doubt we will see the fledglings in due course.

No comments: